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The Story o 


THE COMPLETE RECORD: 
MATTHEW, MARK AND LUKE 
IN A SINGLE NARRATIVE 


Edited by 
A. Bruce Curry FREDERICK Harris 
Harrison S. Exxtiotr Davin R. Porter 
Tuomas W. GraHAM Henry P. VanDusEen 


Introduction and Explanatory Notes by 


THoomas W. GRAHAM 


DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY, 
OBERLIN COLLEGE 


ASSOCIATION PRESS. 


New York: 347 Mapison AVENUE 


1925 


Copyricut, 1925, By 


Tar INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF 


Younc Men’s CuristiAn ASSOCIATIONS 





Printed in the United States of America 


The Bible text used in this volume is from ‘The New Testament, A 
New Translation,” by James Moffatt, D.D., copyright, 1922, by George 
H. Doran Company, and is used by permission. 


Foreword 


The Purpose 


The earnest student of the Gospels is confronted 
by a number of serious difficulties. In the first 
place, he probably knows that the major part of 
the historical material is to be found in the first 
three Gospels and that there is much overlapping 
and duplication between them; but he does not 
know what the relationship of Matthew, Mark 
and Luke is, he is not aware of the distinctive 
point-of-view of, and the material peculiar to, each 
and, above all, he does not know how to use them 
together or how to weave out of them all a single 
coherent picture of the life and teaching of Jesus. 
Then, too, he is constantly running upon allusions 
which are unintelligible to him — bits of local 
color, historical, geographical and religious re- 
ferences — allusions with which the Gospels are 
replete and without an understanding of which 
they cannot be studied intelligently. Finally, he 
is aware of frequent echoes of Old Testament in- 
fluence, but he does not know exactly what these 
are, their sources, or their significance. In brief, 
he needs the assistance of a Harmony and a brief 
Commentary, but he does not use either. 

It is to assist the student in meeting these 
difficulties that this book has been prepared. It 
is a presentation of the Gospel records themselves 
in a form which the Editors believe will prove 
the most helpful and serviceable to the ordinary 
student without special biblical or theological 
training. The major objective has been to present 
all of the material of the Synoptic (Matthew, 


lll 


lv FoREWORD 


Mark and Luke) account of the life of Jesus in 
one single narrative arranged in the accurate 
chronological order as nearly as that can be 
determined; to present it in a recognized transla- 
tion in modern English which will bring out to 
the full the original meaning; and to furnish just 
sufficient information through an introduction 
and brief footnotes to guide adequately the 
untrained student. 


The Plan 


The first step has been the interweaving of the 
Gospel accounts, eliminating ‘duplications and 
parallelisms, so that the Gospel story stands 
forth as a single whole. This harmonization has 
been based on Professor H. B. Sharman’s “Rec- 
ords of the Life of Jesus.” Wherever all three 
Gospels contain the same material, the order 
and usually the wording of Mark have been 
followed. Wherever Matthew and Luke give 
material not found in Mark, sometimes one, 
sometimes the other has been followed; in a very 
few instances, teaching which Matthew and Luke 
both contain but in different locations has been 
repeated and appears at the places in the narrative 
where each writer placed it, for it is almost certain 
that much of Jesus’ teaching was given on more 
than one occasion. Wherever material is given 
in one Gospel only, it appears of course at that 
point in the narrative where the Gospel writer 
has located it. Wherever the same incident or 
teaching occurs in more than one Gospel, all of- 
the sources are always indicated in the marginal 
references (the source which has been used as 
the basis is indicated in heavy-faced type, i.e. 
MK. 1: 9-11, the other sources in small Roman type, 
Le. Mt. 3:13-17, Lk. 3:21-22), so that the reader 


FoREWORD Vv 


can tell at a glance just where each incident ap- 
pears in each of the original Gospels and which 
Gospel has been followed here. And in every 
instance, all of the material in all of the Gospels 
has been included. This has been accomplished by 
incorporating any additions to the major source in 
italics. For example, if Mark is used as the main 
source, anything which Matthew or Luke gives 
which is not found in Mark is woven into the text 
in italics with italicized references in the margin 
indicating just where it has been drawn from. This 
method has made it possible to give the whole re- 
cord while preserving the account in the main 
source intact. Thus, in addition to the complete 
synoptic account of the life of Jesus which it has 
been the major objective to present, the student 
has the material for a detailed comparison of the 
three Gospels; most of the advantages of a Har- 
mony are available without the confusing intri- 
cacy and cumbersomeness of a Harmony. A glance 
at the typical paragraph and explanation facing 
page 1 will indicate just how the book is arranged. 

The text used throughout is that of Professor 
James Moffatt’s “The New Testament, A New 
Translation,” now so popular with students of 
the Gospels. The Introduction will give the ori- 
gin of the Gospels and the essential background 
of the life of Jesus itself to those who are not famil- 
iar with this information. The numbered footnotes 
are intended simply as brief hints to guide the 
student over rough places and to clarify hazy 
references in the narrative. The lettered foot- 
notes indicate minor differences in the text and 
give a complete set of Old Testament references 
for the student who wishes to study the relation 
of the Gospels to the Old Testament. A complete 
index of passages has been added. 


vi FoREWORD 


Acknowledgment 


The Editors wish to express their especial 
indebtedness to Professor James Moffatt of 
Glasgow and Professor James E. Frame of Union 
Theological Seminary, New York, for many help- 
ful suggestions in the preparation and arrange- 
ment of the material. 


“The Story of Jesus”’ is sent forth in the earnest 
hope that it will stimulate and assist a fresh study 
of this Gospel material and that through it some 
may be aided to envisage a new, more clear and 
more compelling picture of the life and teaching 
there set forth. 

Tue Eprirors. 


Contents 


PAGE 
INTRODUCTION . xi 
I. THE BIRTH, INFANCY AND YOUTH OF JESUS 
PARAGRAPH 
1. PARENTAGE OF JOHN THE Baptist 1 
2. Forecast oF Brrr or JESUS. 3 
38. Mary Ano ELIzABETH : 4 
4. Birra or JOHN THE BAPTIST . 5 
5. Tue Brrr or Jesus 7 
a) The Prophecy to Joseph, “b) The Birth at 
Bethlehem. 
6. THe SHEPHERDS . 8 
7. Tur WISEMEN 9 
8. DEDICATION IN THE TEMPLE 11 
.9. Return To NAZARET 12 
10. THe BoyHoop or JEsus 13 
Il. THE EARLY MINISTRY — IN GALILEE 
11. Work or JOHN THE BAPTIST . 14 
12. Tue Baptism or Jesus. 16 
13. THe TEMPTATION 17 
14. THe BEGINNING OF THE " MinistRY 18 
15. IN THE SYNAGOGUE AT NAZARET . 19 
16. Tre Cau or THE Four 21 
17. Tue Frrst Heaincs : 2) 
18. A Mission THrRouGHOUT GALILEE 23 
19. Tue Dravueur or Fis 23 
20. A Leper HEALED . 24 
21. First ConFLicts WITH THE ScRIBES ; 25 
a) Free Forgiveness of Sin, b) Association with 
Sinners, c) Fasting, d) Sabbath Observance, 
e) Healing on the Sabbath. 
22. GREAT POPULARITY . 29 
23. CHOICE OF THE TWELVE 30 
24. ‘THe SERMON ON THE Mount . 31 


a) The Beatitudes, b) The Salt of the Earth, 
c) The Law of Moses, d) The Practice of Charity, 


vil 


Vill CONTENTS 


PARAGRAPH PAGE 
e) Prayer, f) Fasting, g) Possessions, h) Judg- 
ing Others, i) The Golden Rule, etc., j) The 
Supreme Test — Doing God’s Will. 


25. Two WonvbeEeRFUL HEALINGS . 43 
a) The Captain’s Servant, b) The Widow’s Son. 

96. Jesus’ Estimate or JOHN. . 45 

27. Tur Woman Wuo Was a SINNER ea 

28. A Preacuinc Tour. . Sey ra et 

29. FurtHEeR CONFLICT WITH THE ScrIBES : 49 
a) Alliance with Satan, b) pene fora Sign. 

30. Jesus’ Famity Seek Hm . . 52 

31. TracHiInc BY PARABLES . Pa Oe 


a) The Sower, b) The Sower Explained, eo) The 
Wheat and the Weeds, d) Unnoticed Growth, 
e) The Wheat and the Weeds Explained, f) 
Other Parables of the Realm. 

32. A Storm STILLED . . eS ee ees 
33. A SERIES oF HEALINGS. . : 58 
a) The Gerasene Demoniac, b) Jairus’ Daugh- 
ter, c) A Woman with a Hemorrhage, d) The 

Blind and the Dumb. 

84. REJECTION: AT, NAZABET = 20k) 2 oe Os 
35.. ‘Tum MISSION OF; THES LWELVE™ 1:1. 1.0) 20! 
a) The Occasion, b) Instructions, ¢c) Condi- 

tions of Discipleship. 


36. INTEREST oF HEROD ph «. 0) oA. eee 
37. Frepinc THE MULTITUDE tse! 2 Oe 
$8. WALKING. ON ‘THE. SEAL OU. fo). | See 
39. CONTROVERSY WITH PHARISEFS ...... 71 


Ceremonial Defilement. 


Ill. THE EXILE — THE SUPREME CRISIS OF THE 


MINISTRY 
40. Tur Syro-PHOENICIAN WoMAN .... . 7,4 
41. Many Herauines. . a oe “ves a nso 
42. Tor MUuvLrtTiITruDE Frep AcaIn oe ko) gee rs 
48. ‘Tos PHARISEES” AGAIN: 3). Vijels a ee 
44. A Bruinp Man HEALED <i ea) tiete see ee 
46) CAmSaAREA PHILIPPE 2s) ',"/ pi a i 
46. Tue-TRANSFIGURATION : << : =. ~. «es se SO 
AT. Tue Powrr oF PRAYER ) 4.2 Gy) 3 eee 
48. Private TEACHING .. sot coy See 
49. QUESTION oF PAYING TAXES Lo. a SESS 
50. CONVERSATION WITH DISCIPLES . 83 


a) True Greatness, b) Miscellaneous Instruc- 
tions, c) Forgiveness. 


CONTENTS 


IV. THE LATER MINISTRY—IN JUDAEA 


PARAGRAPH 
51. STARTING FOR JERUSALEM 
52. Tue Cost or DIscIPLESHIP 
53. Tur MISSION OF THE SEVENTY 
54. Tue Goop SAMARITAN 
55. Mary AND Marta . 
56. PRAYER : 
57. JEsus’ Estima’ ATE OF | THE > PHARISEES ; 
58. POSSESSIONS 
59. PREPAREDNESS > 
60. NEED FOR REPENTANCE 
61. HEALING ON THE SABBATH 
62. “Tue Last SHatu BE Firsr” 
63. ANOTHER SABBATH DISPUTE 
64. Two Parasites Asout FEasts 
65. COUNTING THE CosT : 
66. Tuer Lost SuHeep, Tue Lost Cou, THE Lost Son 
67. Tue DisHonest Factor 
68. Tue Rich Man anp Lazarus 
69. A ParasLe On Duty 
70. Tren Lepers Hratep re. 
71. Tue CominG or THE REIGN . 
72. Tue Unsust Jupce . 
73. Ture PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN 
74. Divorce 
75. JESUS AND CHILDREN 
76. Tue Rich Youne RULER 
77. LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD . 
78. Jesus Propuyestes His DEeatH 
79. CONTENTION FOR PosITION . 
80. Biinp BarTIMAEUS 
81. ZAcCHAEUS | 
82. THe Pounps . 
V. THE FINAL WEEK—IN JERUSALEM 
- 83. Entry INTO JERUSALEM . 
84. THe Money CHANGERS IN THE > TEMPLE 
The Barren Fig Tree. 
85. QuESTION oF AUTHORITY 
86. Ture Two Sons 
87. Two PARABLES OF THE Ream 


a) The Absent Landowner, b) The Marriage 
Feast. 


1x 


PAGE 
87 
87 
88 
90 
91 
92 
93 
95 
7 
98 
99 

100 
101 
101 
103 
104 
106 
LOT? 
108 
109 
109 
111 
LLL 
112 
113 
114 
115 
116 
117 
118 
118 
119 


121 
123 


124 
125 
125 


CONTENTS 


x 

PARAGRAPH 

88. A SERIES OF CONTROVERSIES . ; 
a) Taxes to Caesar, b) The Resurrection, c) 
The Great Commandments. 

89. CHRIST AND Davip 

90. CONDEMNATION OF THE PHARISEES 

91. Tue Wipow’s Girt 

92. WARNINGS OF THE FUTURE ..... . 
a) Destruction of the Temple, b) Signs of the 
End, c) Persecution, d) Characteristics of the 
End, e) The Coming of the Son of Man, f) The 
Wise Servant, g) Wise and Foolish Maidens, 
h) The Pounds, i) The Sheep and the Goats. 

93. Tue AUTHORITIES CONSPIRE } 

94. THe Precious OINTMENT 

95. Tur Last SUPPER 

96. PrtrerR’s DENIAL PREDICTED 


PAGE 
128 


130 
130 
134 
134 


VI. THE CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION 


97. 
98. 
99. 
100. 
101. 
102. 
103. 
104. 


105. 


GETHSEMANE . 

THE BETRAYAL : : 

THe TRIAL BEFORE THE " SANHEDRIN A 

PETER’s DENIAL . 

TriaL Brerore PILATE 

TriaL BeroreE Hrerop 

Pitate’s DEcISION ’ 

THE CRUCIFIXION OF Jesus co ee ho 
a) On the Way to Golgotha, b) The Crucifixion, 
ce) Jesus’ Death, d) The Burial. 

THe RESURRECTION. . 

a) The Empty Tomb, b) Appearance to the 
Women, c) On the Road to Emmaus, d) In 
Jerusalem, e) In Galilee — The Final Instruc- 
tions. 


APPENDIX A . 


The Ancestry of Jesus. 


APPENDIX B . 5 > Faas GRRL one 6s Pot ee 


Flight to Egypt. 


167 


Introduction 


All the information we have about the life of 
Jesus is in the New Testament. ‘There are, it is 
true, some references to Him in other writings, 
and we have recently discovered a group of “‘say-_ 
ings of Jesus,” but these add nothing of value to 
the New Testament material. 

The earliest writings which mention Jesus are 
the letters of Paul, a Jewish rabbi who, soon after 
the death of Jesus, became a Christian apostle. 
Paul wrote these letters to Christian churches and 
leaders during the twenty years beginning in 48 
A.D. Only incidental biographical references to 
Jesus are found in the letters, but they give us 
a great deal of information about the influences 
at work on and about those who were gathering 
the material of our Gospels and arranging them 
in their present form. 

Jesus Himself left no written record. It was 
not long, however, before many of His friends and 
followers attempted to preserve His experience 
and teaching in written form. These writings 
were called “Gospels,” because they contained 
“the Gospel”’; that is, the story of God’s purpose 
to bring in a new order of life for man through 
Jesus. These documents preserved the record 
of events in the life of Jesus, and that part of His 
teaching that was handed down by word of mouth 
from those who had been intimately with Him. 
Sometimes the Gospels were interpretations of 


Xl 


xii INTRODUCTION 


these oral traditions made in terms of the philoso- 
phy or religion of the day. Of all that were written 
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John alone survive. 
The first three of these give us a synopsis of the 
life and teaching of Jesus and so are called the 
“Synoptic Gospels.” John belongs to the group 
of “interpretations” and cannot be so well used’ 
in establishing the historicity of Jesus. 

For more than a century these four Gospels 
have been subject to the most searching study 
and criticism. Scholars have been busy reproduc- 
ing the situation out of which they came, testing 
their historicity and credibility, getting explana- 
tions of the strange combination of similarities 
and differences which they exhibit, and estab- 
lishing the particular point of view from which 
each was written. The net result of this century 
of work has been to confirm more thoroughly 
the place of the Gospels as credible historical 
documents, and to make certain some conclusions 
as to their making. 

It is now generally agreed that Mark is the 
earliest of our Gospels. In the main it furnishes 
the narrative framework of Matthew and Luke, 
though the compilers of these felt free to change 
somewhat Mark’s order of events. To what 
Mark recorded these writers added material taken 
from a lost common source, now technically 
known as Q (Quelle, German for source). Q seems 
to have been mainly a collection of the teachings 
of Jesus. It may be reconstructed by bringing 
together the sections common to Matthew and 
Luke and omitted by Mark. The writers of 
Matthew and Luke used sources in addition to 
Mark and Q. The introduction to Luke makes 
reference to oral and written sources on which 
he drew. Some of these do not seem to have been 


INTRODUCTION X1ll 


available for Matthew, for Luke alone gives us 
such instructive incidents as the entertainment of 
Jesus by Martha and Mary, the ten lepers, the 
penitent thief on the cross, and the journey to 
Emmaus, and such beautiful and indispensable 
teachings as the parables of the good Samaritan, 
the prodigal son, the rich man and Lazarus, 
and the Pharisee and the Publican praying in the 
Temple. Matthew evidently drew also upon a col- 
lection of Old Testament prophecies arranged for 
the use of the early Christians in their arguments 
with the Jews about the Messiahship of Jesus. 
So, out of a body of oral tradition and writings 
about Jesus, our four Gospels took form. 

The Gospels are one in their purpose. They 
all attempt to bring to bear upon some section of 
the life of that first-century world the influence 
of the experiences and teaching of Jesus. Their 
style, content, and method are largely determined 
by the section of the world to which the compilers 
were addressing themselves. 

There seems to be no reason to doubt the saying 
which Eusebius quotes from Papias that “‘ Mark 
having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote 
down accurately, but not in order, whatever he 
remembered of the things said and done by 
Christ.” This Mark has been identified with the 
John Mark of the New Testament, whose home 
in Jerusalem was a rendezvous for the early 
Christian leaders and who was a travelling com- 
panion of Peter and. Paul. He had had, there- 
fore, the finest possible chance to become familiar 
with the facts about which he wrote. Mark writes 
in the frank, vivid, unconventional style of one 
who is confident that the straightforward presen- 
tation of the events of the life of Jesus will produce 
in others the same effects of faith which the 


XIV INTRODUCTION 


writer has experienced. Mark makes very slight 
reference to the sacred books of the Jews, in which 
Christians had a very real interest, and goes out 
of his way to explain Jewish customs and rites. 
Evidently his concern is for non-Christian Gen- 
tiles. The accepted conclusion is that Mark . 
wrote for Gentiles in Rome sometime in the 
decade between 60 and 70 a.p. An exact date 
is impossible to fix. 

The Gospel of Matthew was evidently written 
for a conservative group of Jews who had become 
Christian. It shows great respect for the Mosaic 
law and Jewish tradition. It emphasizes those 
events which seem to correspond with certain 
Old Testament prophecies. It makes prominent 
use of that material which would set Jesus up as 
the Messiah of Jewish expectation. The Gospel 
is a polemic in two directions. It actively opposes 
those Jews who had done away with Jesus and who 
are continually persecuting the Christians, and 
it as certainly opposes those Christians who were 
inclined to give up the whole heritage of Judaism 
to Christianity. From the end of the second 
century the name of Matthew, a disciple of Jesus, 
has been traditionally attached to this Gospel. 
It is not likely that one who had been a personal 
follower of Jesus would have followed so closely 
the writing of Mark and Q. There may be in- 
corporated in this present document something 
which the disciple Matthew wrote, but we can 
scarcely give the whole book to his authorship. 
This Gospel was probably written soon after the 
destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.p. 

Though his name is not mentioned in it, tradi- 
tion ascribes the third Gospel to Luke. We 
gather from the book of Acts and the letters of 
Paul that Luke was a Gentile physician who 


INTRODUCTION XV 


accompanied Paul on some of his journeys. He 
was in contact with Christians in many parts of 
the world and so had the chance to gather that 
written and oral material which he finally wove 
together into his Gospel. Luke suggests none of 
the Jewish exclusiveness of Matthew. He 
changes some of the material which he takes from 
Mark to make it more acceptable to Greek ears. 
He strikes a more universal note about Jesus. 
Evidently he meant his Gospel to be circulated 
throughout the whole Christian world. This book 
may have been written as late as 100 or as early 
as 60 A.D. 

The fourth Gospel is so different in type that 
for our present purpose it had best be left to one 
side. Its interest is largely in discourses of Jesus 
and these of very different style and subject 
matter from those reported in the Synoptics. 
For the fourth Gospel the ministry of Jesus is 
largely confined to Judaea, and in that ministry 
He is in opposition to the Jews rather than to the 
Scribes and Pharisees. The Gospel is more of an 
interpretation such as one would reach who was 
trying to relate his life to the glorified life of Jesus 
in Heaven. It cannot be relied upon for the 
establishment of historical details, though it is 
invaluable in helping to an understanding of the 
influence Jesus had upon the thinking of the first 
century. 

Mark’s Gospel contains no record of the birth 
of Jesus. There is no allusion to it in the writings 
of Paul or even in the Gospel of John. Matthew 
and Luke carry the story of the Nativity, but 
their accounts do not agree in certain vital par- 
ticulars. From these two Gospels we have the 
information that Jesus was born to Joseph and 
Mary at Bethlehem of Judaea during the taking 


Xvl1 INTRODUCTION 


of an imperial census. Such a census was begun 
at about 8 B.c., and probably took three years to 
complete. Herod, the Great, who died in 4 B.c., 
was living at the time of Jesus’ birth. We must 
place his birth somewhere between 8 and 4 B.c. 

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a small town in 
the southernmost district of Palestine. Palestine 
was the name given by the Greeks to that section 
of Syria which lies between the Arabian Desert 
on the south and Mt. Hermon on the north, a 
territory 120 miles long by from 70 to 100 miles 
wide. : 

In the time of Jesus, Palestine was a Roman 
province which was divided into three adminis- 
trative districts. The first of these included 
Judaea, Samaria, and Idumea and was a province 
of the second class ruled by a procurator. This 
Roman official had full fiscal, judicial and military 
power. There was no appeal from his decisions 
save for one with the status of a Roman citizen. 
However, after the custom of Roman governors, 
he allowed the local Hebrew courts to handle 
all minor cases. Of these courts the Sanhedrin. 
was the highest. The Jerusalem Sanhedrin,; 
consisting of seventy-two members of pure 
Hebrew stock, met twice a week in its own build-: 
ing, and there exercised the powers of arrest, 
trial, and punishment. Only in cases where capi- 
tal punishment was involved did the Sanhedrin 
consult the Roman authorities. 

The second administrative district was a 
tetrarchy ruled by Philip, the finest of the son 
of Herod, the Great. The exact boundaries o 
this tetrarchy are not known, but in genera! it. 
comprised the section of Palestine east ang 
northeast of the Sea of Galilee. Philip prove 
himself a just ruler. He was fond of Rome, and 


INTRODUCTION XvVil 


managed to keep his people in sympathy with 
the Empire. The rebuilt city of Panias, some 
thirty miles north of the Sea of Galilee, was his 
capital, and was called Ceesarea Philippi. 

Herod Antipas, another son of Herod the Great, 
ruled the third district from 4 B.c. to 39 «A.D. 
He was a crafty, ostentatious, oriental monarch. 
His territory included Galilee and Peraea, the 
richest section of Palestine. This country was 
mostly an undulating, fertile plain “thickly popu- 
lated, studded with vineyards, gardens, villages, 
and towns.” ‘The population was mixed Jewish 
and Gentile. ‘Though the Jews maintained a 
rigid exclusive nationalism, they nevertheless 
accepted much of the best of the Graeco-Roman 
civilization of the day. They were more vigorous 
than their Judean compatriots, and showed a 
greater love of freedom and a truer sense of mo- 
rality than their southern countrymen. Though 
born in Judea, Jesus lived from earliest childhood 
to within a few weeks of His death in Herod’s 
kingdom. | 

After Jesus’ birth His parents returned to their 
home in Nazaret, a small town in central Galilee. 
In this town Jesus lived as a private citizen until 
the beginning of His brief public career. He 
developed in natural ways under the usual influ- 
ences of a pious artisan family. A number of 
these influences are worthy of notice. 

Jesus grew up in a large family. Mark names 
four brothers and mentions that He had sisters. 
There were at least seven children in Joseph’s 
household. Joseph was a carpenter and joiner, 
a trade which furnished a steady, but not a large 
income. Thrift was a necessary virtue in such a 
family. Well-worn and well-patched clothes were 
the usual order, and every member was required 


XVill INTRODUCTION 


to do his part in the work of the home. Later in 
life Jesus learned Joseph’s trade and added His 
help to the support of His family in whose gen- 
erous circle He learned many lessons of considera- 
tion, self-control, unselfish love, and service. 

The Nazaret community greatly influenced 
Jesus. The village nestled in the hills to the 
southwest of the Sea of Galilee. Near by was the 
main commercial highway of Palestine along 
which the cosmopolitan life of the Roman Empire 
surged. This road led through the great Plain 
of Esdraelon, the scene of some of the most stirring 
events in Jewish history. From the hills about 
the village distant views of the Mediterranean 
and of snow-capped Mt. Hermon were to be had, 
while the fields along the hillsides were rich in 
flowers and birds. This rich out-of-doors appears 
throughout the teaching of Jesus. He loved it 
and owed it much. 

The Nazaret synagogue was an influence in 
His life. It was both church and school to Him. 
Sabbath after Sabbath He found in it a powerful 
religious influence. The Synagogue had grown 
up in the days of the Exile. It was freer in spirit 
and form than the Temple. In its services the 
great hymns of the past were sung, lessons were 
read from the Law and the Prophets, formal 
prayers were said, and men of good reputation 
discoursed on the lesson for the day or gave 
testimony to the power of faith in Jehovah. In 


these ways Jesus was introduced to the chief 


religious conceptions of His people—their belief 
in one omnipotent, righteous God, in angels, in 
spirits good and bad, in life after death with 
rewards or punishments, and, most of all, in the 
coming Kingdom of God and the Messianic ex- 
pectation. 


LL 


INTRODUCTION XIX 


The idea of the Kingdom of God was the slow 
product of centuries of experience. The small 
Jewish people had been in contact with great 
‘empires for a thousand years. Assyria, Babylon, 
Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome had in turn 
held them to tribute. They were thus compelled 
to think in world terms. Because they believed 
themselves to be the chosen people of God their 
thinking took the form of a world kingdom of God. 
Surely the All Powerful would some day insist 
on His rule and call upon His chosen people to 
establish His kingdom in righteousness. ‘To help 
in this establishment they came to believe that 
God would send His personal representative to 
lead the Jews. They gave this one the title 
Messiah or Anointed One. About the Messiah 
many questions were asked. ‘There was large 
room for question as to the place and method of 
His appearing, the length and nature of His 
reign, His attitude to the wicked and the righteous 
and so on. Increasingly the writings of the past 
were searched for suggestions of answers to these 
questions. In Jesus’ time, the Messianic hope 
centered on one who as the Son of David or the 
Son of God should establish an earthly theocratic 
kingdom, much on the lines of the world powers 
then existing. There were a few, however, who 
looked for a Son of Man whose coming would be 
less in the form of an oriental potentate and more 
that of a righteous leader and teacher of men. 

When Jesus was about thirty years of age an 
ascetic preacher called John the Baptizer ap- 
peared by the fords of the Jordan and began to 
capitalize this messianic expectation in_ his 
preaching. So stirring was he in the announce- 
ment of the near approach of God’s Kingdom that 
great crowds flocked to hear him. A great revival 


xx INTRODUCTION 


developed. In the midst of it Jesus left His 
Nazaret home, gave up His carpenter work, came > 
to hear John, and found that all the growing 
experience of the quiet years in Nazaret was being 
focused upon the task of beginning the Kingdom 
of God. He, therefore, had John baptize Him, 
found that experience one of consecrating power, 
and, after a time of searching self-examination, 
He gave Himself to the ministry which is described 
in the gospel story which this book contains. 


uv) 
= 
Y) 
vo 
— 
(ee, 
oO 
ae 
fot 
= 
TN 
vo 
ae 
inl 





Mk. 1:9-11 
Mt. 3:13-17 


LE. 3:21-22 


Mt. 3:14-15 


Lk. 3:21 
Mt. 3:16 


A TYPICAL PARAGRAPH 
12. The Baptism of Jesus. 


Now it was in those days that Jesus arrived 
from Nazaret in Galilee and got baptized in the 
Jordan by John. John tried to prevent him: “I 
need to get baptized by you,” he said, “and you 
come to me!” But Jesus answered him, ‘Come ° 
now, this 1s how we should fulfil all our duty to 
God.” Then John gave in to him. And the 
moment he rose from the water and was praying, 
he saw the heavens cleft and the Spirit of God 
coming down upon him like a dove; then said a 
voice from heaven, 


af hou art my Son, the Beloved: 
in thee is my delight.’ 





EXPLANATION 


The story of the Baptism is found in all three Gospels. 
Here, as indicated by the heavy-faced reference in the margin, 
the account given in Mark has been used as the basis. The 
major source, therefore, is Mk. 1:9-11 and the text (when the 
italicized words are omitted) is Mark’s account. The parallel 
accounts of the Baptism will be found in Mt. 3:13-17 and 
Lk. 3:21-22. 

The words in italics occur in Matthew or Luke but not in 
Mark; their sources are indicated by the marginal references 
in italics. For example, the sentences, “‘John tried......... 
gave in to him” are from Mt. 3:14-15; the words, “‘and he was 
praying’ are from Lk. 3:21; the words “of God” are from 
Mt. 3:16. 

The first set of footnotes, indicated by letters, give minor 
differences in the Gospels, Old Testament references, etc. For 
example, ““Thou art my Son, the Beloved, in thee is my delight”’ 
is a quotation from Isaiah 42:1 and Psalm 2:7. 

The second set of footnotes, indicated by numbers, concern 
historical, geographical and religious allusions, etc. 

Wherever brackets ({ ]) appear, they are reprinted exactly 
as they occur in Dr. Moffatt’s translation and indicate pass- 
ages which in his judgment are of doubtful authenticity. 


XXii 


The Story of Jesus 


I. THE BIRTH, INFANCY AND YOUTH 
OF JESUS. 


1. Parentage of John the Baptist. 


In the days! of Herod? king of Judaea there 
was a priest called Zechariah, who belonged to 
the division of Abijah*; he had a wife who be- 
longed to the daughters of Aaron, and her name 
was Elizabeth. They were both just in the sight 
of God, blameless in their obedience to all the 
commands and regulations of God; but they had 
no child, for Elizabeth was barren’. Both of them 
were advanced in years. 

Now while he was officiating before God in the 
due course of his division, it fell to him by lot, as 
was the custom of the priesthood, to enter the 
sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense, the mass 
of the people all remaining in prayer outside at 
the hour of incense. And an angel of the Lord® 
_ appeared to him, standing on the right side of the 





1 About 5 B.c. 2 Herod, the Great, an Idumean, sent by 
Rome to be king of Judaea, Samaria, Galilee, and parts of Perea. 
3’ The priests were supposed to be descendants of Aaron, 
brother of Moses. Through two sons of Aaron twenty-four 
families sprung. To these was distributed by lot the order 
of their temple service. Each group served eight days, from 
Sabbath to Sabbath inclusive. (I Chronicles 24: 10.) 

4A heavy misfortune and humiliation for any Jewish family 
5 The belief in angels as messengers of God was general 


1 


Lk. 1: 5-25 


9 Tur Story or JEsus [§ 1] 


altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him he was 
troubled, and fear fell on him; but the angel said 
to him, “Fear not, Zechariah, your prayer has 
been heard; your wife Elizabeth will bear a son 
to you, and you must call his name John. 
It will be joy and gladness to you, 
and many will rejoice over his birth: 
for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, 
he will drink neither wine nor strong drink¢, 
he will be filled with the holy Spirit! from his 
very birth; 
he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the 
Lord their God, 
he will go in front of Him with the spirit and 
power of Elijah’, 
to turn the hearts of fathers to their 
children?, 
turning the disobedient to the wisdom of 
the just, 
to make a people ready and prepared for 
the Lord.” 
Zechariah said to the angel, “But how am I to be 
sure of this? I am an old man myself, and my 
wife is advanced in years.” The angel replied, 
“1 am Gabriel’, I stand before God; I have been 
sent to speak to you and to tell you this good 
news. But you will be silent and unable to speak 
till the day this happens, because you have not 


@ See Numbers 6: 3. ’ Malachi 4: 5, 6. 





1The holy Spirit was thought of as the “‘animating power 
in the universe, the inspiration of the prophet, the soldier, 
the king and even the common workman.” ‘The possession 
of this power enabled one to reveal the will of God in special 
fashion. 

2 Elijah, thought of as the greatest of the Hebrew prophets, 
was looked for as the forerunner of the Messiah (Mal. 4: 1-6). 
8 Gabriel means “‘Hero of God.’ He was thought to be 
God’s messenger of mercy. Cp. Daniel 8: 16; 9: 21. 


[§ 2] Tue Brrru, Inrancy anp Youtu 3 


believed what I told you; it will be accomplished, 
for all that, in due time.”’ 

Now the people were waiting for Zechariah 
and wondering that he stayed so long inside the 
sanctuary. When he did come out he could not 
speak to them, so they realized that he had seen 
a vision in the sanctuary; he made signs to them 
and remained dumb. Then, after his term of 
service had elapsed, he went home. 

After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived; 
and for five months she concealed herself. ‘“‘The 
Lord has done this for me,”’ she said, ““he has now 
deigned to remove my reproach among men.”’ 


2. Forecast of Birth of Jesus. 


In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent 
by God to a town in Galilee called Nazaret, to a 
maiden who was betrothed to a man called Joseph, 
belonging to the house of David'!. The maiden’s 
name was Mary. The angel went in and said to 
her, “Hail, O favoured one! the Lord be with 
you!” At this she was startled; she thought to 
herself, whatever can this greeting mean? But the 
angel said to her, “‘Fear not, Mary, you have found 
favour with God. You are to conceive and bear 
a son, and you must call his name Jesus?. 

He will be great, he will be called the Son of 
the Most High, 
and the Lord God will give him the throne 
of David his father; 
He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, 
and to his reign there will be no end?®.”’ 





@ Tsaiah 7: 14. © II Samuel 7: 12-17. 





1A descendant of King David. Tradition had it that the 
Messiah would be of the family of David. 


Lk. 1: 26-38 


Lk. 1:39-56 


4 THe Story or JESUS [$ 3] 


“How can this be?” said Mary to the angel, 
“T have no husband.” The angel answered her, 
“The holy Spirit will come upon you, the power 
of the Most High will overshadow you; hence 
what is born will be called holy, Son of God. 
Look, there is your kinswoman Elizabeth! Even 
she has conceived a son in her old age, and she 
who was called barren is now in her sixth month; 
for with God nothing is ever impossible.”” Mary 
said, “I am here to serve the Lord. Let it be as 
you have said.”’ Then the angel went away. 


3. Mary and Elizabeth. 


In those days Mary started with haste for the 
hill-country, for a town of Judah; she entered 
the house of Zechariah and saluted Elizabeth, 
and when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, 
the babe leapt in her womb. Then Elizabeth was 
filled with the holy Spirit; she called out with 
a loud cry, 

“Blessed among women are you, and blessed 
is the fruit of your womb! 
What have I done to have the mother of my 
Lord come to me? Why, as soon as the sound of 
your salutation reached my ears, the babe leapt 
for joy within my womb. And blessed is she who 
believed that the Lord’s words to her would be 
fulfilled.” Then Mary said, 
““My soul magnifies the Lord, 
My spirit has joy in God my Saviour: 
for he has considered the humiliation of his 
servant. 





*Cp. I Samuel 2:1; 1:11; Psalm 103:17; Psalm 89:10; I 
Samuel 2: 7-8; Job 5: 11; 12: 19; I Samuel 2: 5; Psalm 107: 9; 
Isaiah 41: 8-9; Genesis 17: 7; Micah 7: 20. 


[§ 4] Tue Brrtu, INraAncy AND YoutH 5 


From this time forth all generations will call 
me blessed, 
for He who is Mighty has done great things 
for me. 
His name is holy, 
his mercy is on generation after generation, 
for those who reverence him. 
He has done a deed of might with his arm, 
he has scattered the proud with their pur- 
poses, 
princes he has dethroned and the poor he 
has uplifted, 
he has satisfied the hungry with good things 
and sent the rich away empty. 
He has succoured his servant Israel, 
mindful of his merey— 
as he promised our fathers, 
to have mercy on Abraham and his offspring 
for ever.” 
Mary stayed with her about three months and 
then returned home. 


4. Birth of John the Baptist. 


Now the time for Elizabeth’s delivery had 
elapsed, and she gave birth to a son. When her 
neighbours and kinsfolk heard of the Lord’s great 
mercy to her they rejoiced with her, and on the 
eighth day came to circumcise the child’. They 
were going to call it by the name of its father 
Zechariah, but the mother told them, “‘No, the 
child is to be called John.” They said to her, 
“None of your family is called by that name.” 
Then they made signs to the father to find out 
what, he wanted the child to be called, and he 
asked for a writing-tablet and wrote down, “His 


2 Leviticus 12: 3. 





Lk. 1:57-80 


6 THe Story or JESUS [§ 4] 


name is John,” to the astonishment of all. In- 
stantly his mouth was opened, his tongue loosed, 
and he spoke out blessing God. Then fear fell on 
all their neighbours, and all these events were 
talked of through the whole of the hill-country 
of Judaea. All who heard of it bore it in mind; 
they said, ‘““Whatever will this child become?” — 
For the hand of the Lord was indeed with him. 
And Zechariah his father was filled with the 
holy Spirit; he prophesied in these words’, 
“Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, 
for he has cared for his people and wrought 
them redemption ; 
he has raised up a strong saviour for us 
in the house of his servant David— 
as he promised of old by the lips of his 
prophets— 
to save us from our foes and from the hand 
of all who hate us, 
to deal mercifully with our fathers 
and to be mindful of his holy covenant, 
of the oath he swore to Abraham! our father, 
that freed from fear and from the hand of 
our foes 
we should worship him in holiness and up- 
rightness 
all our days within his presence. 
And you, my child, shall be called a prophet 
of the Most High?; 


@ Cp. Psalm 72: 18; Psalm 111: 9; I Samuel 2: 10; Psalm 106: 
10; Genesis 17: 7; 22: 16-18; Leviticus 26: 42; Eeaten 105: 8-9; 
Nicki 72 a()s Malach: 3: 1; Isaiah 9: 2. 








1 Abraham is the traditional ancestor of the Hebrews. 

?'The prophet was one who spoke for God. He was the 
mouthpiece of God delivering such messages as God had for 
a particular time or people. There was little, if any, predictive 
element in the prophet’s work. 


[§ 5-a] THe Brirtn, INrancy anp YouTH if 


for you shall go in front of the Lord to 
make his ways ready, 
to bring his people the knowledge of salva- 
tion 
through the remission of their sins— 
by the tender mercy of our God, 
who will make the Dawn visit us from on 
high, 
to shine on those who sit in darkness and in 
the shadow of death, 
to guide our steps into the way of peace.” 


And the child grew, he became strong in the 
Spirit and remained in the desert till the day when 
he made his appearance before Israel. 


5. The Birth of Jesus’. 
a). The Prophecy to Joseph. 


The birth of Jesus Christ! came about thus. 
His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but 
before they came together she was discovered to 
be pregnant by the holy Spirit. As Joseph her 
husband was a just man but unwilling to disgrace 
her, he resolved to divorce her secretly; but after 
he had planned this, there appeared an angel of 
the Lord to him in a dream saying, “Joseph, son 
of David, fear not to take Mary your wife home, 
for what is begotten in her comes from the holy 
Spirit. She will bear a son, and you will call him 
‘Jesus,’ for he will save his people from their sins.” 





* For the “Ancestry of Jesus,’’ see Appendix A. 





1 Jesus is the personal baptized name of our Lord. Christ, 
meaning anointed, is an official name used of those appointed 
by God to be His representatives in special relationships. 
Kings were so called. Here it denotes Jesus as Messiah. 
This official title in later usage becomes also a personal name 
for Jesus. 


Mt. 1: 18-25 


Lk. 2: 1-7 


Lk. 2: 8-20 


8 THE Story or JESUS [§ 6] 


All this happened for the fulfilment of what the 
Lord had spoken by the prophet’: 

The maiden will conceive and bear a son, 

and his name will be called Immanuel 
(which may be translated, God is with us). So 
on waking from sleep Joseph did as the angel of ' 
the Lord had commanded him; he took his wife 
home, but he did not live with her as a husband 
till she bore a son, whom he called Jesus. 


b). The Birth at Bethlehem. 


Now in those! days an edict was issued by 
Caesar Augustus for a census of the whole world. 
(This was the first census, and it took place when 
Quirinius was governor of Syria.) So everyone 
went to be registered, each at his own town?, and 
as Joseph belonged to the house and family of 
David he went up from Galilee to Judaea, from 
the town of Nazaret to David’s town called 
Bethlehem, to be registered along with Mary his 
wife. She was pregnant, and while they were 
there the days elapsed for her delivery; she gave 
birth to her firstborn son, and as there was no 
room for them inside the khan she wrapped him 
up and laid him im a stall for cattle. 


6. The Shepherds. 


There were some shepherds in the district who 
were out in the fields keeping guard over their 
flocks by night; and an angel of the Lord flashed 
upon them, the glory of the Lord shone all round 
them. They were terribly afraid, but the angel 





2 \saiah 7: 14. 





1 About 5 B.c. * The method of taking a census required 
each person to return to his ancestral town. 


[$ 7] THE Birtu, Inrancy AND YOUTH 9 


said to them, “Have no fear. This is good news 
I am bringing you, news of a great joy that is 
meant for all the People. To-day you have a 
saviour born in the town of David, the Lord 
messiah. And here is a proof for you: you will find 
a baby wrapped up and lying in a stall for cattle.” 
Then a host of heaven’s army suddenly appeared 
beside the angel extolling God and saying, 
“Glory to God in high heaven, 
and peace on earth for men whom he 
favours!” 

Now when the angels had left them and gone 
_away to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 
“Tet us be off to Bethlehem to see this thing that 
the Lord has told us of.’ So they made haste 
and discovered Mary and Joseph and the baby 
lying in the stall for cattle. When they saw this 
they told people about the word which had been 
spoken to them about the child; all who heard it 
were astonished at the story of the shepherds, 
and as for Mary, she treasured it all up and 
mused upon it. Then the shepherds went away 
back, glorifying and extolling God for all they had 
heard and seen as they had been told they would. 


7. The Wisemen. 


~ Now when Jesus was born at Bethlehem, be- Mt. 2:1-12 
longing to Judaea, in the days of king Herod, 

magicians from the East! arrived at Jerusalem, 

_asking, “Where is the newly-born king of the 

Jews? We saw his star when it rose*, and we 


@Cp. Numbers 24: 17. 





1 Astrologers, coming probably from Babylon in Mesopotamia. 
_ They belonged toa class who, through the study of the heavens, 
made predictions of good or evil. They evidently shared the 
widespread hope for a Messiah. 


- 10 Tue Story or JESUS [$ 7] 


have come to worship him!.”” The news of this 
troubled king Herod and all Jerusalem as well; 
so he gathered all the high priests and scribes of 
the people and made inquiries of them about where 
the messiah was to be born. They told him, “In 
Bethlehem belonging to Judaea: for thus it is 
written by the prophet*: 
And you Bethlehem, in Judah’s land, 
You are not least among the rulers of 
Judah: 
For a ruler will come from you, 

Who will shepherd Israel my people.” 
Then Herod summoned the magicians in secret 
and ascertained from them the time of the star’s 
appearance. He also sent them to Bethlehem, 
telling them, “Go and make a careful search for 
the child, and when you have found him report 
to me, so that I can go and worship him too.” 
The magicians listened to the king and then 
went their way. And the star they had seen rise 
went in front of them till it stopped over the place 
where the child was. When they caught sight 
of the star they were intensely glad. And on 
reaching the house they saw the child with his 
mother Mary, they fell down to worship him, 
and opening their caskets they offered him gifts 
of gold and frankincense and myrrh’. Then, as 
they had been divinely warned in a dream* not: 
to return to Herod, they went back to their own 
country by a different road. , 





@ Micah 5: 2. 





1'The widespread expectation of the birth of a great monarch 
in the West led them to connect some phenomena in the 
heavens with his birth. 2 Costly gifts designed for royalty 
3 Sincerely believed to be one of the means of communicatior 
of God to men. : 
| 
| 


[$8] Tue Birts, Inrancy anp YoutH 11 


8. Dedication in the Temple. 


When the eight days had passed for his circum- 
cision’, he was named Jesus—the name given by 
the angel before he had been conceived in the 
womb. 

When the days for their purification in terms 
of the Mosaic law had elapsed!, they brought him 
up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as 
it is written in the law of the Lord: every male 
that opens the womb must be considered conse- 
crated to the Lord) and also to offer the sacrifice 
prescribed in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle- 
doves or two young pigeons®.. Now there was a 
man in Jerusalem called Symeon, an upright and 
devout man, who was on the outlook for the 
Consolation of Israel?.. The holy Spirit was upon 
him; indeed it had been revealed to him by the 
holy Spirit that he was not to see death before he 
had seen the Lord messiah. By an inspiration 
of the Spirit he came to the temple, and when the 
parents of the child Jesus carried him in to per- 
form the customary regulations of the law for 
him, then Symeon took him in his arms, blessed 


God, and said, 


“Now, Master, thou canst let thy servant go, 
and go in peace, as thou didst promise; 
for mine eyes have seen thy saving power 
which thou hast prepared before the face 
of all the peoples, 





@ Genesis 17: 12; Leviticus 12: 3. ’ Leviticus 12: 1-8; 
Exodus 13: 2, 12, 15. 


1QOn the fortieth day after birth the Law required certain 
ceremonies of purification. Until that day the mother was 
not allowed to leave her house. 2 A common phrase for 
the Messiah. ‘“‘May I see the Consolation of Israel” was 
the daily prayer of pious and expectant Jews. 





Lk. 2: 21-38 


Lk. 2:39-40 


12 THE STORY OF JESUS [§ 9] 


to be a light of revelation for the Gentiles! 

and a glory to thy people Israel *.”’. 
His father and mother were astonished at these 
words about him, but Symeon blessed them, and 
to his mother Mary he said, “‘ This child is destined 
for the downfall as well as for the rise of many a | 
one in Israel; destined to be a Sign for man’s 
attack—to bring out the secret aims of many a 
heart. And your own soul will be pierced by a 
spear.” 

There was also a prophetess, Hannah the daugh- 
ter of Phanuel, who belonged to the tribe of Asher; 
she was advanced in years, ‘having lived seven 
years with her husband after her girlhood and 
having been a widow for eighty-four years. She 
was never away from the temple; night and day 
she worshipped, fasting and praying”. Now at 
that very hour she came up, and she offered praise 
to God and spoke of him to all who were on the 
outlook for the redemption of Jerusalem”. 


9. Return to Nazaret. 


When they had finished all the regulations of 
the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to 
their own town of Nazaret. And the child grew 
and became strong; he was filled with wisdom 
and the favour of God was on him. 





2 Cp. Isaiah 52: 10; 42: 6; 49: 6. ® Mt. inserts here an 
account of “The Flight to Egypt.” See Appendix B. 





1 Gentiles were those unfortunate enough not to be born 
Jews. Our word ‘foreigner’? sometimes carries the same 
implications. 2 Her accepted position as prophetess may 
have obtained for her the right to live in one of the 
temple chambers, possibly doing some work for it, such as 
trimming the lamps. 


[§ 10] Tue Birtu, INFANcy anp YOUTH 13 


10. The Boyhood of Jesus. 


Every year his parents used to travel to Jeru- 
salem at the passover festival'; and when he was 
twelve years old they went up as usual to the 
festival. After spending the full rumber of days 
they came back, but the boy Jesus stayed behind 
in Jerusalem. His parents did not know of this; 
they supposed he was in the caravan and travelled 
on for a day, searching for him among their kins- 
folk and acquaintances. Then, as they failed to 
find him, they came back to Jerusalem in search 
of him. Three days later they found him in the 
temple, seated among the teachers, listening to 
them and asking them questions, till all his hearers 
were amazed at the intelligence of his own answers. 
When his parents saw him they were astounded, 
and his mother said to him, “My son, why have 
you behaved like this to us? Here have your 
father and I been looking for you anxiously!” 
“Why did you look for me?” he said, “Did you 
not know I had to be at my Father’s house??” 
But they did not understand what he said. Then 
he went down along with them to Nazaret, and 
did as they told him. His mother treasured up 
everything in her heart. And Jesus increased in 
wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God 
and man?, 





« Or “about my Father’s business.” ® Cp. I Samuel 2: 26. 





' The passover was the greatest Jewish festival. It came in 
the Spring and was observed by pilgrimages to Jerusalem by 
all pious Jews who could make the journey. Traditionally 
this festival had its beginning in the miraculous escape of 
the Jewish slaves in Egypt from a death-dealing pestilence. 
The commemorative rites suggest a mingling of a joyous 
pastoral festival and a time of national self-examination and 
repentance. 


Lk. 2: 41-52 


Lk. 3: 1-20 
NCGS ako 
Mk. 1:1-8 


Mt. 3:1 


UGA See 


Mk. 1:2 


Il. THE EARLY MINISTRY— 
IN GALILEE. 


11. Work of John the Baptist. 


Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius 
Caesar!, when Pontius Pilate was governor? of 
Judaea, Herod’ being tetrarch of Galilee, Philip* 
his brother tetrarch of the country of Ituraea and 
Trachonitis, and Lysias tetrarch of Abilene, 
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caia- 
phas®, the word of God came to John the son of 
Zechariah in the desert of Judaea, and he went 
into all the Jordan-district® preaching a baptism 
of repentance for the remission of sins, “ Repent, 
the Reign of heaven is near,’—as it is written in the 
book of the sayings of the prophet Isaiah ¢, 

Here I send my messenger before your face 
to prepare the way for you: 

The voice of one who cries in the desert, 

‘Make the way ready for the Lord, 

level the paths for him. 


@ Malachi 3: 1; Isaiah 40: 3-5. 





1 The stepson and successor to Caesar Augustus. ” Governor 
here in sense of viceroy. 3’ Herod was the son of Herod, 
the Great, and for forty years was ruler in Galilee and Perea, 
subject of course to the Roman governor of all Palestine. 

4 Philip’s territory was north of Galilee at the foot of Mount 
Hermon. 5 By Jewish law the high priest served for life. 
But sometimes the political authorities deposed the acting 
high priest and nominated his successor. As long as he lived, 
however, one so deposed would be called “‘High Priest.””. The 
high priests were chosen from certain families. Members of 
these families were loosely called high priests. § Jordan— 
Consult “‘The Historical Geography of the Holy Land” by 
G. A. Smith. 


14 


f§11] Tue Earty Ministry—In Gauiter = 15 


Every valley shall be filled up; 
every hill and mound laid low, 
the crooked made straight, 
the rough roads smooth; 
so shall all flesh see the saving power of God.’ 

This John had his clothes made of camel’s hair, 
with a leather girdle round his loins; his food was 
locusts and wild honey!. Then Jerusalem and the 
whole of Judaea and all the Jordan-district went 
out to him and got baptized by him in the Jordan, 
confessing their sins?. 

But when he noticed a number of the Pharisees 
and Sadducees coming for his baptism, to the crowds 
who came out to get baptized by him John said, 
“You brood of vipers, who toid you to flee from 
the coming Wrath? Now, produce fruits that 
answer to your repentance, instead of beginning 
to say to yourselves, ‘We have a father in Abra- 
ham?.’ I tell you, God can raise up children for 
Abraham from these stones! The axe is lying all 
ready at the root of the trees; any tree that is not 
producing good fruit will be cut down and thrown 
into the fire.”’ 

The crowds asked him, ““Then what are we to 
do?” He replied, “Let everyone who possesses 
two shirts share with him who has none, and let 





1The picture of a wilderness ascetic, clothed in rough, un- 
adorned garments and eating simple food in open contempt 
at the ease and luxury of some of his fellow countrymen. 

2 Baptism to the Jews signified consecration and cleansing. 
It was a rite performed on Gentiles who accepted the Jewish 
faith. John uses the rite as the outward symbol of an inner 
act of acceptance of a clean way of life fitting one for com- 
panionship with the Messiah. 

$’The Jew had such an exalted conception of this privilege 
as to believe that nothing else was necessary for a saving 
relationship with God. 


Mt. 3: 4-6 


Mt. 3:7 


Mt. 3:11 


Mk. 1:9-11 
Mt. 3:13-17 
Lk. 3:21-22 


16 THE Srory or JESUS [$ 12] 


him who has food do likewise.” ‘Taxgatherers ! 


~ also came to get baptized, and they said to him, 


“Teacher, what are we to do?”’ He said to them, 
“Never exact more than your fixed rate.’ Sol- 
diers also asked him, “And what are we to do?” 
He said to them, “‘ Never extort money, never lay | 
a false charge, but be content with your pay.” 
Now as people’s expectations were roused and 
as everybody thought to himself about John, 
“Can he be the Christ?” John said to them all, 
“T baptize you with water for repentance, 
but after me one who is mightier will come, 
and I am not fit to untie the string of his 
sandals; 
he will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire. 
His winnowing-fan is in his hand to purge 
his threshing-floor, 

to gather the wheat into his granary 

and burn the straw with fire unquenchable.”’ 
Thus with many another appeal he spoke his 
message to the people. But Herod the tetrarch, 
who had been reproved by him for Herodias his 
brother’s wife as well as for all the wickedness that 
he, Herod, had committed, crowned all by 
shutting John up in prison“. 


12. The Baptism of Jesus. 


Now it was in those days that Jesus arrived 
from Nazaret in Galilee and got baptized in the 





*For account of circumstances of John’s imprisonment by 
Herod, see Mk. 6: 17-18 (§ 36). 





1The Roman government did not collect its own taxes but 
farmed them out to taxgatherers who made their profit by 
extra charges. The temptation to extortion was great and 


’ usually yielded to. Hence the low esteem in which the Pub- 


licans or taxgatherers were held. 


[§ 13] Tue Earty Ministry—In Gainer 17 


- Jordan by John. John treed to prevent him; “I 
need to get baptized by you,” he said, “and you 
come to me!” But Jesus answered him, *‘ Come 
now, this is how we should fulfil all our duty to 
God.” Then John gave in to him. And the 
moment he rose from the water and was praying, 
he saw the heavens cleft and the Spirit of God 
coming down upon him like a dove’; then said a 
voice from heaven ®, 
‘Thou art my Son’, the Beloved, 
in thee is my delight”.’ 


13. The Temptation. 


From the Jordan Jesus came back full of the holy 
Spirit and was led into the desert by the Spirit’ 


to be tempted by the devil’. He fasted forty: 


days and forty nights and afterwards felt hungry /. 
So the tempter came up and said to him, “If you 
are God’s Son, tell these stones to become loaves.”’ 





@¢ Vk. alone adds, “‘in bodily form” (3: 22). ’ Psalm 2: 7; 
Isaiah 42: 1. ©In Mt. the voice from heaven speaks to 
the assembled crowd: “‘This is my Son,” ete. (3:17). ¢Lk.: 
*“*to-day have I become thy father” (3: 22). ¢ Mk. says, 


“The Spirit drove him immediately into the desert’’(1: 12). 


7 Mk. gives no details about the nature of the temptation. 





1The baptism of Jesus differs from those already described. 
Baptism brought him a vision of the unseen things of God, 
an inspiration for a new task to be accomplished through 
unhindered communication and fellowship with God and a 
sense of perfect kinship with the Father. Baptism for Jesus 
was an intense spiritual experience which radically changed 
the course of his life. 2 The embodiment of evil, The ruler 
of the kingdom of evil who works directly with men or 
through daemons tempts men to evil. The Jews also used the 
word “Satan” for this same evil personage. Both words 
suggest an evil adversary. 


Mt. 3:14-16 


DR Ss2t 
Mie S216 


Mt. 4:1-11 
Mk. 1:12-13 
Lk. 4:1-13 
Lk. 4:1 


Lk. 4:6 


Lk. 4:6 


Lk. 4:18 
Mk. 1:18 


Mt. 4: 12-17 
Mk. 1:14-15 
Lk. 4: 14-15 


Lk. 4:14 


18 Tue Story or JESUS [§ 14] 


He answered, “It is written’, 

Man is not to live on bread alone, 

but on every word that issues from the — 
mouth of God.” 

Then the devil conveyed him to the holy city? and, 
placing him on the pinnacle of the temple, said 
to him, “If you are God’s Son, throw yourself’ 
down; for it is written’, 

He will give his angels charge of you; 

they will bear you on their hands, 

lest you strike your foot against a stone.” 
Jesus said to him, “It is written again®, You shall 
not tempt the Lord your God.” Once again the 
devil conveyed him to an exceedingly high moun- 
tain and showed him all the realms of the world 
and their grandeur in a single instant; he said, 
“T will give you all that if you will fall down and 
worship me, for az has been made over to me and I 
can gwe rt to anyone I choose.” ‘Then Jesus told 
him, “Begone, Satan! it 1s written’, You must 
worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.” 
After exhausting every kind of temptation the devil 
left him till a fit opportunity arrived. He was in 
the company of wild beasts and angels came up 
and ministered to him. 


14. The Beginning of the Ministry. 
Now when Jesus heard that John had been 
arrested, he withdrew in the power of the Spirit to 
Galilee; he left Nazaret and settled at Capharna- 
hum! beside the lake, in the territory of Zebulun 


* Deuteronomy 8&: 3. ® T.e., Jerusalem (Lk. 4: 9), the holy 
capital of the Jews. ¢ Psalm 91 : 11-12. 2 Deuter- 
onomy 6: 16. ¢ Deuteronomy 6: 13. 


1Capharnahum can no longer be identified with certainty. 
It was evidently a thriving town on the northwest shore of 
the Sea of Galilee. For most of Jesus’ ministry it was his 
headquarters. 


[§ 15] Vue Earty Ministry—In GALILEE 19 


and Naphtali!—for the fulfilment of what had 
been said by the prophet Isaiah?: 

Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali 

lying to the sea, across the Jordan, 

Galilee of the Gentiles! 
The people who sat in darknesssawa great light, 
yea light dawned on those who sat in the land 
and the shadow of death. 

From that day Jesus began to preach, saying, 
“The time has now come, God’s reign is near: Mk. 1:16 
repent and believe in the gospel?.”” And the news Lk. 4:14-15 
of him spread over all the surrounding country. He 
taught in their synagogues and was glorified by all. 


15. In the Synagogue at Nazaret?. 


Then he came to Nazaret, where he had been Lk. 4: 16-30 
brought up, and on the sabbath?’ he entered the 
synagogue’ as was his custom. He stood up to 


@ Tsaiah 9: 1-2. ’ Cp. Mt. 13: 54-58 and Mk. 6: 1-6 (§ 34). 








‘Two of the original twelve tribes of Israel. In the Hebrew 
settlement of Palestine they had been assigned territory to 
the north and west of the Sea of Galilee. * Not a body of 
doctrine or tradition but “‘glad tidings” concerning the near 
approach of the long-hoped-for reign of God. 
3The Sabbath, beginning at sunset Friday and closing at 
sunset Saturday, was a day sacred to God. It was closely 
hedged about by laws which concerned the most minute 
details of its observance. These laws were originally designed 
to safeguard the day for rest and worship but by Jesus’ time 
they had become a burden of “‘the letter without the spirit.” 
4The synagogue was the local Jewish church. It was in 
_ charge of a “ruler of the synagogue” who arranged for the 
free form of service conducted in it on the Sabbath. Formal 
prayers were said, hymns sung, sections of the idealistic litera- 
ture of Judaism were read from the Law and the Prophets 
and comments made on these readings by any man of good 
repute on whom the “ruler” might call. During the other 
days of the week the synagogue was used as a grade school 
and as a sort of municipal court where minor cases were tried 


| under the Mosaic Law. 


20 THE Story or JESUS [§ 15] 


read the lesson and was handed the book of the 
prophet Isaiah; on opening the book he came — 
upon the place ‘where it was written® : 


The Spirit of the Lord is upon me: 
for he has consecrated me to preach the gospel — 
to the poor; 
he has sent me to proclaim release for 
captives 
and recovery of sight for the blind, 
to set free the oppressed, 
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour. 


f 
| 
| 
Then, folding up the book, he handed it back to : 
the attendant and sat down: The eyes of all in 
the synagogue were fixed on him, and he proceeded 
to tell them that “To-day, this scripture is fulfilled — 
in your hearing.” | 
All spoke well of him and marvelled at the 
gracious words that came from his lips; they said, 
“Ts this not Joseph’s son?” So he said to them, © 
““No doubt you will repeat to me this proverb, 
‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ ‘Do here in your own 
country all we have heard you did in Capharna- 
hum.’”’ He added, “I tell you truly, no prophet 
is ever welcome in his native place. I tell you for 
a fact, | 
In Israel there were many widows during the 
days of Elijah °, 
when the sky was closed for three years 
and six months, | 
when a great famine came over all the 
land: 
yet Elijah was not sent to any of these, 
but only to a widow woman at Zarephath 
in Sidon’. q 





@ Tsaiah 61: 1-2. ’ See I Kings 17: 1; 18: 1-2. ; 
¢ See I Kings 17: 8-9. : 


[§ 16] THe Earty Ministry—In GaLitEE 21 


And in Israel there were many lepers in the 
time of the prophet Elisha, 
yet none of these was cleansed, 
but only Naaman the Syrian’.”’ 
When they heard this, all in the synagogue were 
filled with rage; they rose up, put him out of the 
town, and brought him to the brow of the hill on 
which their town was built, in order to hurl him 
down. But he made his way through them and 
went off. 


16. The Call of the Four’. 


Now as he passed along the sea of Galilee he 
saw Simon (who is called Peter) and Simon’s 
brother Andrew netting fish in the sea—for they 
were fishermen; so Jesus said to them, “Come, 
follow me and [ will make you fish for men.’ At 
once they dropped their nets and went after him. 
Then going on a little further he saw James the 
son of Zebedaeus and his brother John; they too 
were in their boat, mending their nets beside their 
father Zebedaeus. He called them at once, and 
they left their father Zebedaeus in the boat with 
the crew and went to follow him. 


17. The First Healings. 


They then entered Capharnahum, a town of 
Galilee. As soon as the sabbath came, he at once 
began to teach in the synagogue; and they were 
astounded at his teaching, for he taught them 
like an authority, not like the scribes'. Now 


@ See IT Kings 5:1, 14. 6 Cp. also Lk. 5: 1-11 (§ 19). 








Mk. 1: 16-20 
Mt. 4: 18-22 
Mt. 4:18 


Mt. 4:21 


MK. 1: 21-34 
Mt. 8: 14-17 
Lk. 4:31-41 
Lk. 4:31 


1 Scribes were those who made a profession of the study of . 


the Hebrew Law. They attempted to develop from the 
_ Law a set of casuistical rules elaborate enough to fit every 
conceivable contingency of life. They were legalists and 


Lk. 4:86 


Lk. 4:36 


Lk. 4:38 
‘Lk. 4:39 


Mt. 8:17 


22 THE Story or JESUS [§ 17] 


there was a man with an unclean spirit! in their 
synagogue, who at once shrieked out, “Jesus of. 
Nazaret, what business have you with us? Have 
you come to destroy us? We know who you are, 
you are God’s holy One.” But Jesus checked it; 
“Be quiet,” he said, ““come out of him.” And 
after convulsing him the unclean spirit did come 
out of him with a loud ery without doing him any 
harm. Then they were all so amazed that they 
discussed it together, saying, ““ Whatever is this?” 
“It’s new teaching with authority and power 
behind it!” “‘He orders even unclean spirits!” 
“Yes, and they obey him!’’: So his fame at once 
spread in all directions through the whole of the 
surrounding country of Galilee. 

On leaving the synagogue they went straight 
to the house of Simon and Andrew, accompanied 
by James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law was 
in bed with a severe attack of fever, so they told 
him at once about her, and he went up to her and 
checked the fever and taking her hand made her 
rise; the fever left her at once and she ministered 
to them. 

Now when evening came, when the sun set?, 
they brought him all who were ill or possessed by 
daemons—indeed the whole town was gathered 
at the door—and he cured many who were ill 
with various diseases—that the word spoken by 





their teaching consisted largely in tracing out the interpre- 
tions of the law made by earlier lawyers. Their authority 
lay in the decisions of the past. Jesus’ authority grew out 
of his own inner experience and conviction. — 
1The Jews attributed certain types of physical and mental 
disease to the presence of evil spirits in the afflicted person. 
These diseases were usually of a nervous character and so 
subject, as we know, to psychological treatment. * The 
Sabbath ended at sunset, so it was now possible for the sick 
to be carried without breaking the laws about Sabbath work. 


[§18] THe Karty Ministry—in GALILEE 23 


the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, He took away 
our sicknesses and he removed our diseases*. From 
many people daemons were also driven out, 
clamouring aloud, ““You are God’s son!” But he 
checked them and refused to let them say anything, 
as they knew hin, that he was the Christ. 


18. A Mission Throughout Galilee. 


Then in the early morning, long before daylight, 
he got up and went away out to a lonely spot. 
He was praying there when Simon and his com- 
panions hunted him out and discovered him; 
they told him, “Everybody is looking for you,” 
but he said to them, “Let us go somewhere else, 
to the adjoining country-towns, so that I may 
preach there as well; that is why I came out here.” 
And he went throughout the whole of Galilee 
teaching, preaching the Gospel of the Reign in their 
synagogues, healing all the sickness and disease of 
the people and casting out daemons. 


19. The Draught of Fish °. 


Now as the crowd were pressing on him to listen 
to the word of God, he saw, as he stood beside the 
lake of Gennesaret, two boats on the shore of the 
lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were 
washing their nets. So he entered one of the boats, 
which belonged to Simon, and asked him to push 
out a little from the land. ‘Then he sat down and 
taught the people from the boat. When he 
stopped speaking, he said to Simon, “Push out 
to the deep water and lower your nets for a take.” 
Simon replied, “Master, we worked all night and 


@ Isaiah 53: 4. > Cp. Mt. 4: 18-22 and Mk. 1: 16-20 (§ 16). 
Also Jn. 21:18. 





Lk. 4:41 


Mk. 1:35-39 
Mt. 4:23 
Lk. 4:42-44 


Mt. 4:23 


Lk. 5:1-1@ 


Mk. 1: 40-45 
Mt. &: 2-4 
Lk. 5: 12-16 


Lk. 6:12 


Lk. 6:16 


Q4 THE SToRY OF JESUS [$ 20] 


got nothing! However, I will lower the nets at 
your command.” And when they did so they 
enclosed a huge shoal of fish, so that their nets 
began to break. Then they made signals to their 
mates in the other boat to come and assist them. 
They came and filled both the boats, till they 
began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it he 


fell at the knees of Jesus, crying, “Lord, leave ~ 


me; I am a sinful man.’ For amazement had 
seized him and all his companions at the take of 
fish they had caught; as was the case with James 


and John, the sons of Zebedaeus, who were part-- 


ners of Simon ?. 


20. A Leper Healed. 


When he was in one of their towns, a leper! came 
to him beseeching him on bended knee, saying, 
“Tf you only choose, you can cleanse me’’; so he 
stretched his hand out in pity and touched him 
saying, “I do choose, be cleansed.’ And the 
leprosy at once left him and he was cleansed. 
Then he sent him off at once with the stern charge, 
“See, you are not to say a word to anybody; 
away and show yourself to the priest and offer 
what Moses prescribed for your cleansing, to 
notify men®.” But he went off and proceeded to 
proclaim it aloud and spread news of the affair 
both far and wide. The result was that large 
crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their 





@ Lk. makes this incident the occasion for “The Call of the 
Four” (§ 16). (See Lk. 5:10-11.)  % Leviticus 13: 49; 14: 2. 





1 Leprosy was a repulsive disease regarded more than other 
diseases as a divine punishment. lLepers were compelled to 
live in isolation, cry out “Unclean”’ if anyone approached 
them, and were rigidly shunned even by their own families. 
Jesus did a most unusual thing in touching this leper. 


[§ 21-a] THe Earty Ministry—In Gainer 25 


complaints so that Jesus could no longer enter any 
town openly; he stayed outside in lonely places}, 


and people came to him from every quarter. 


21. First Conflicts with the Scribes. 
a). Free Forgiveness of Sin. 


When he entered Capharnahum again after 
some days it was reported that he was at home, 
and a large number at once gathered, till there 
was no more room for them, not even at the door. 
Near him sat Pharisees and doctors of the Law? 


who had come from every village of Galilee and 


Judaea as well as from Jerusalem. Now the power 


of the Lord was present for the work of healing. 


He was speaking the word to them, when a 
paralytic was brought to him; four men carried 
him, and as they could not get near Jesus on 
account of the crowd, they tore up the roof? 
under which he stood and through the opening 
they lowered the pallet * on which the paralytic 
lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the 
paralytic, “Courage! My son, your sins are for- 
given.” Now there were some scribes and Phari- 
sees sitting there who argued in their hearts, 
“What does the man mean by talking like this? 
It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins, who but 
God alone?’ Conscious at once that they were 
arguing to themselves in this way, Jesus asked 
them, “Why do you argue thus in your hearts? 





1 Evidently Jesus did not wish to become absorbed in a “‘heal- 
ing” ministry. He was fighting for the chance to preach and 
teach. 2 The Jerusalem lawyers were important visitors 
from headquarters, indicating that the Jesus movement was 
attracting the serious attention of the religious leaders of his 
people. 3 Not a difficult thing to do with the flat roof of 
the typical one-story Galilean house. 4 Pallet—a light bed 
or stretcher, possibly a woven mat. 


Mk. 2:1-12 
Mt. 9:2-8 
Lk. 5: 17-26 


Lk. 6:17 


Mt. 9:2 
LR: 6:21 


Lk. 6:25 


Mt. 9:8 
Lk. 5:26 


Mk. 2:13-17 
Mt. 9:9-13 
Lk. 5: 27-32 
iO Sea 
Lk. 5:28 


26 THE Story or JESUS [§ 21-b] 


Which is the easier thing, to tell the paralytic, 
“Your sins are forgiven,’ or to tell him, ‘Rise, lift 
your pallet, and go away’? But to let you see the 
Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins””— 
he said to the paralytic, “Rise, I tell you, lift 
your pallet, and go home.” And he rose, lifted 
his pallet at once, and went off home before them 
all, glorifying God; at this they were all amazed 
and glorified God for giving such power to men 
saying, ““ We never saw the like of it!’ “We have 
seen incredible things to-day.” : 


b). Association with Sinners. 


Then he went out again by the seaside, and all 
the crowd came to him and he taught them. As 
he passed along he saw Levi? the son of Alphaeus, 
a taxgatherer, sitting at the tax-office; he said 
to him, “Follow me,” and he rose. left everything 
and followed him. Now Levi was at table in his 
own house, and he had many taxgatherers and 
sinners! as guests along with Jesus and his dis- 
ciples—for there were many of them among his 
followers. So when some scribes of the Pharisees? 
saw he was eating with sinners and taxgatherers 
they said to his disciples, ““Why does he eat and 
drinkewith taxgatherers and sinners*?”? On hear- 
ing this, Jesus said to them, 





@ Mt. gives his name as “Matthew” (9: 9). 





1Sinners were not necessarily openly immoral folk. The 
word includes those who were careless in their observance 
of the Mosaic law. * Pharisees—a sect of the Jews strongly 
nationalistic, adhering rigidly to the letter of their sacred 
scriptures, and holding belief in angels, life after death and 
the coming of a messiah. They were great sticklers for form, 
tradition and convention. 3 Why should a professed leader 
in religion associate with the socially outcast? 


 [§ g1-c] Tue Earty Ministry—In GALILEE 27 


“Those who are strong have no need of a doc- 
tor, but those who are ill: 
Go and learn the meaning of this word’, 
‘I care for mercy not for sacrifice’; 
I have not come to call just men but sinners 
to repentance.” 


c). Fasting. 


As the disciples of John and of the Pharisees 
were observing a fast, people > came and asked 
him, “‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples 


_of the Pharisees fast frequently and offer prayers’, 


and your disciples do not fast?” Jesus said to 
them, 


“Can friends at a wedding fast while the bride- 
groom is beside them? 

As long as they have the bridegroom beside 
them they cannot fast. 

A time will come when the bridegroom is 
taken from them; then they will fast, 
on that day. 

No one stitches a piece of undressed cloth 
on an old coat, 

otherwise the patch breaks away, the new 
from the old, 
and the tear is made worse: 
and the new prece will not match with the old. 
No one pours fresh wine into old wineskins, 
otherwise the wine will burst the wineskins, 
and both wine and wineskins are ruined. 





@ Hosea 6:6. °% Mt. says it was “the disciples of John’’ who 
came (9: 14). 





1 Fasting was supposed to be religiously helpful. It was a 
formal matter for the most part, done on certain days, re- 
quiring a fixed sort of dress and attitude of body, but not 
requiring any inner correspondence of feeling. 


Mt. 9:13 


Lk. 6:82 


Mk. 2: 18-22 
Mt. 9:14-17 
Lk. 5:33-39 


Lk. 6:33 


Lk. 6:86 


28 Tue Story or JEsus [§ 21-d] 


Mt. 9:17 They put fresh wine into fresh wineskins and 
so both are preserved. 
Lk. 5:39 Besides, no one wants new wine [immediately] 


after drinking old; 
‘The old,’ he says, “is better.’ ”’ 
d). Sabbath Observance. 


Mk. 2:23=28 Now it happened that he was passing through. 
Mt. 12:1-8 the cornfields on the sabbath, and as the disciples 


na made their way through, being hungry, they began 
eke ale Il th f corn, rubbing them in their 
aie to pu e ears Of corn, 7 ng them wm ther 

re hands*. The Pharisees said to him, “Look at 


what they are doing on the sabbath! That is 
not allowed®.’’ He said to them, “Have you 
never read what David did when he was in need 
and hungry, he and his men °? He went into the 
house of God (Abiathar was high priest then) 
and ate the loaves of the Presence which no one 
except the priests is allowed to eat, and also 
Mt. 12:-7 shared them with his followers. Have you not 
read in the Law that the priests in the temple are not 
guilty when they desecrate the sabbath 4? TI tell you, 
One vs here who 1s greater than the temple. Besides, 
of you had known what this meant, I care for mercy 
not for sacrifice’, you would not have condemned 
men who are not guilty.’ And he said to them, 


“The sabbath was made for man, not man for 
the sabbath/: 

so that the Son of man is Lord even over 
the sabbath.” 


e). Healing on the Sabbath. 


Mk. 3:1-6 Again he entered a synagogue on another sab- 


9). gs 4 
Ne dae bath. Now a man was there whose right hand 


Lk. 66-11 2 Deuteronomy 23:25. ° Exodus 20: 10; Deuteronomy 5: 14. 
Lk. 6:6-7 ¢ Tl Samuel 21: 1-6; Leviticus 24: 9. ¢ Numbers 28: 9-10. 
¢ Hosea 6:6. ‘4 Mk. alone gives this sentence. 





[§ 22] Ture Earty Ministry—In GALILEE 29 


was withered, and they (the scribes and the Phari- 
sees) watched to see if he would heal him on the 
sabbath, so as to get a charge against him. He 
said to the man with the withered hand, “‘ Rise 
and come forward”; then he asked them, ‘“‘Is 
it right to help or to hurt on the sabbath, to save 
life or to kill? Is there a man of you with one 
sheep, who will not catch hold of tt and lift rt out 
of a prt on the sabbath, vf it falls in? And how much 


more isa man worth than a sheep? Thus tt rs right 


to doa kindness on the sabbath*.”” 'They were silent. 
Then glancing round him in anger and vexation 
at their obstinacy he told the man, “Stretch out 
your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand 
was quite restored. On this the Pharisees with- 


drew and at once joined the Herodians! in a plot 


against him, to destroy him. 

The fame of him spread all through the surround- 
ing country, and people brought him all their sick, 
those who suffered from all manner of disease and 
pain, demoniacs, lunatics, and paralytics; he 


healed them all. 


22. Great Popularity. 


Jesus retired with his disciples to the sea, and 
a large number of people from Galilee followed 
him; also a large number came to him from 
Decapolis, Judaea, Jerusalem, [dumaea, the other 
side of the Jordan, and the neighbourhood of Tyre 
and Sidon, as they had heard of his domgs. So 


@Cp. Lk. 14: 1-6 (§ 63). 


1Tt is difficult to define the Herodians. They were appar- 
ently a political party in sympathy with the political aspira- 
tions of the Herods, and taking their generally lax attitude 
to life. In most ways they were in direct contrast to the 
Pharisees. That the Pharisees were willing to join with them 
is evidence of their intense opposition to Jesus’ plans. 








Mt. 12:11-12 


Mt. 4:24 


Mk. 3: 7-12 
Mt. 4:25 
Mt. 12:15-21 


Mt. 4:25 


Mt. 12:17-21 


Lk. 6: 12-19 
Mt. 10: 1-4 
Mk. 3:13-19 


Mk. 3:14-19 


30 THE Story of JESUS [§ 23] 


he told his disciples to have a small boat ready; 
it was to prevent him being crushed by the crowd, 
for he healed so many that all who had complaints 
were pressing on him to get a touch of him. And 
whenever the unclean spirits saw him they fell 
down before him, screaming, “You are the Son 
of God!” But he charged them strictly and se- 


verely not to make him known. J/¢ was for the — 
fulfilment of what had been said by the prophet 


Tsaiah*, | 
Here is my servant whom I have selected, 
my Beloved in whom my soul delights; 
I will invest him with my Spirit, 
and he will proclaim religion to the Gentiles. 
He will not wrangle or shout, 
no one will hear his voice in the streets. 
He will not break the bruised reed, 
he will not put out the smouldering flax, 
till he carries religion to victory: 
and the Gentiles will hope in his name. 


23. Choice of the Twelve. 


It was in these days that he went off to the hill- 
side to pray. He spent the whole night in prayer 
to God, and when day broke he summoned his 
disciples, choosing twelve of them, to whom he 
gave the name of ‘apostles”’ to be with him, also 





@ Tsaiah 42: 1-4. 





1 Aside from brief references we have little information about 
the Twelve. They were evidently gathered from the “com- 
mon people.” Each had been engaged in a necessary occupa- 
tion. All were ready to make radical changes in their plans 
at the behest of new duties. They were honest, earnest, 
human folks, whom Jesus called for close association with 
himself, for training in carrying out his purposes and for 
ultimate responsibility in teaching his way of life to the world. 


[§ 24-a] Tur Earty Ministry—In GALILEE 31 


that he might despatch them to preach with the 
power of casting out daemons; and also to heal 
every disease and every ailment. There was 
Simon, whom he surnamed Peter, James the son 
of Zebedaeus and John the brother of James (he 
surnamed them Boanerges, or “Sons of thunder’’), 
Andrew, the brother of Simon, Philip, Bartholo- 
mew, Matthew the taxgatherer, Thomas, James the 
son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus*, Simon the zealot, and 
Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. 

With them he came down the hill and stood 
on a level spot. There was a great company of 
his disciples with him, and a large multitude of 
people from all Judaea, from Jerusalem, and from 
the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to 
hear him and to get cured of their diseases. Those 
who were annoyed with unclean spirits also were 
healed. Indeed the whole of the crowd made 
efforts to touch him, for power issued from him 
and cured everybody. 


24. The Sermon on the Mount. 
a). The Beatitudes. 

So when he saw the crowds, he went up the hill 
and sat down; his disciples came up to him and 
he opened his lips and began to teach them. He 
sald : 

‘Blessed are those who feel poor in spirit! 
the Realm of heaven is theirs?. 





¢ Lk. calls him, “Judas, the son of James” (6: 16). 
®’ Lk.: “‘Blessed are you poor! 
the realm of God is yours” (6: 20). 





1Tyre and Sidon were cities on the Mediterranean coast 
north and west of Galilee. The crowds were now coming from 
long distances to Jesus. 


Mt. 10:1 


Lk. 6:14 
Mt. 10:3 


Mt. 5:1-12 
Lk. 6: 20-26 


32 THE Story or JESUS [§ 24-a] 


Blessed are the mourners! 
they will be consoled ?. 
Blessed are the humble! 
they will inherit the earth °. 
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for 
goodness! 
they will be satisfied °. 
Blessed are the merciful! 
they will find mercy. 
Blessed are the pure in heart! 
they will see God. 
Blessed are the peacemakers! 
they will be ranked sons of God. 
Blessed are whose who have been persecuted 
for the sake of goodness! 
the Realm of heaven is theirs. 

Blessed are you when men denounce you and 
persecute you and utter all manner of evil against 
you for my sake; rejoice and exult in it, for your 
reward is rich in heaven; that is how they perse- 
cuted the prophets before you?’. 





4 Lk.: “Blessed are you who weep to-day! 
you shall laugh” (6: 21). 
’ Cp. Psalm 37: 11. 
¢Lk.: “Blessed are you who hunger to-day! 
you will be satisfied” (6: 21). 
4Lk.: “Blessed are you when men will hate you, 
when they will excommunicate you and denounce you 
and defame you as wicked on account of the Son 
of man; 
rejoice on that day and leap for joy! 
rich is your reward in heaven— 
for their fathers did the very same to the prophets.” 
(6: 22-23). 
¢ Lk. adds here: 
“But woe to you rich folk! 
you get all the comforts you will ever get. 
Woe to you who have your fill to-day! 
you will be hungry. 


[§ 24-b] Tue Earty Ministry—In GALiter 33 


b). The Salt of the Earth. 


You are the salt of the earth. But if salt be- 
comes insipid, what can make it salt again? 
After that it is fit for nothing, fit only to be 
thrown outside and trodden by the feet of men®. 

You are the light of the world®. A town on the 
top of a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light 
a lamp to put it under a bowl; they put it on a 
stand and it shines for all in the house. So your 
light is to shine before men, that they may see 
the good you do and glorify your Father in heaven. 


c). The Law of Moses. 


Do not imagine I have come to destroy the Law 
or the prophets; I have not come to destroy but 
to fulfil. (1 tell you truly, till heaven and earth 
pass away not an iota, not a comma, will pass 
from the Law until it is all in force. Therefore 

whoever relaxes a single one of these com- 
mands, were it even one of the least, and 
teaches men so, 
he will be ranked least in the Realm of 
heaven; 
but whoever obeys them and teaches them, 
he will be ranked great in the Realm of 
heaven.)° For I tell you, unless your goodness 
excels that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will 
never get into the Realm of heaven. 





Woe to you who laugh to-day! 
you will wail and weep. 
Woe to you when all men speak well of you! 
that is just what their fathers did to the false prophets.”’ 
(6: 24-26). 
@Cp. Mk. 9:50 (§50, a) and Lk. 14: 34-35 (§ 65). °Cp. 
Mk. 4: 21 and Lk. 8:16 (§ 31, b). ¢ The sentences in paren- 
theses are considered of doubtful authenticity. 


Mt. 5:13-16 
EK eb ie33 


Mt. 5:17-48 
Lk. 6: 27-36 

Lk. 12: 57-59 
Lk. 16: 17-18 


34 THE Story or JESUS [§ 24-c] 


You have heard how the men of old were told’, 
‘Murder not: 
whoever murders must come up for sentence, 
whoever maligns his brother must come 
before the Sanhedrin ', 
whoever curses his brother must go to the 
fire of Gehenna.’ 
But I tell you, whoever is angry with his brother 
[without cause] will be sentenced by God. So 
if you remember, even when offering your gift 
at the altar, that your brother has any grievance 
against you, leave your gift at the very altar and » 
go away; first be reconciled to your brother, then 
come back and offer your gift. 

Be quick and make terms with your opponent, 
so long as you and he are on the way to court, 
in case he hands you over to the judge, and the 
judge to the jailer, and you are thrown into prison; 
truly I tell you, you will never get out till you pay 
the last halfpenny of your debt. 

You have heard how it used to be said®, Do 
not commit adultery. But I tell you, any one 
who even looks with lust at a woman has com- 
mitted adultery with her already in his heart. 

If your right eye is a hindrance to you, 
pluck it out and throw it away: 
better for you to lose one of your members 
than to have all your body thrown into 
Gehenna. 





@ Exodus 20: 13; Deuteronomy 5: 17; Exodus 21: 12; Leviticus 
24: 17. > Exodus 20: 14; Deuteronomy 5: 18. 





1 The Sanhedrin was the supreme court of the Jews. It was 
composed of seventy-one members, chief priests, scribes and 
elders. The Sanhedrin interpreted and administered the law 
and inflicted penalties for disobedience and heresy. Its 
orders were considered binding throughout orthodox Judaism. 


[§ 24-c] Tue Karty Ministry—In Gaiter 35 


And if your right hand is a hindrance to you, 
cut it off and throw it away: 
: better for you to lose one of your members 
than to have all your body thrown into 
: Gehenna!°. 

It used to be said °, Whoever divorces his wife 
must give her a divorce-certificate. But I tell you, 
anyone who divorces his wife for any reason except 

unchastity ° makes her an adulteress; and who- 
ever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. 

Once again, you have heard how the men of 

old were told’, “You must not forswear yourself 
but discharge your vows to the Lord.’ But I 
tell you, you must not swear any oath, 
neither by heaven’, 
for it is the throne of God, 
nor by earth, 
for it is the footstool of his feet, 
nor by Jerusalem, 
for it is the city of the great King; 
nor shall you swear by your head, 
for you cannot make a single hair white 
or black. 
Let what you say be simply ‘yes’ or ‘no’; 
whatever exceeds that springs from evil. 

You have heard the saying’, An eye for an eye 

and a tooth for a tooth. 





@ Cp. Mt. 18: 8-9 and Mk. 9: 43-47 (§ 50, a). ° Deuteronomy 
PA: 1. ¢ Lk. does not make this exception. Cp. Mt. 19:9 
and Mk. 10: 11-12 and Lk. 16:18 ($74). 4 Leviticus 19: 
12; Numbers 30: 2; Deuteronomy 23:21. ¢ Cp. Isaiah 66: 1; 
Psalm 48:2. 4 Exodus 21: 24; Leviticus 24: 20; Deuteronomy 
19: 21. 





1Gehenna is the name of a valley on the southwest of Jeru- 
salem. In Jewish literature it is the name for the place of 
punishment of the godless. 


36 THE Story OF JESUS [§ 24-c] 


But I tell you, you are not to resist an injury: 
whoever strikes you on the right cheek, 
turn the other to him as well; 
whoever wants to sue you for your shirt, 
let him have your coat as well; 
whoever forces you to go one mile, 
go two miles with him; 
give to the man who begs from you, 
and turn not away from him who wants 
to borrow. 
You have heard the saying, ‘You must love 
your neighbour and hate your enemy’.’ But I 
Lk. 6:27-28 tell you, love your enemies, do good to those who 
hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for 
those who persecute you, that you may be sons 
of your Father in heaven: 
he makes his sun rise on the evil and the 
good, . . 
and sends rain on the just and the unjust °. 
For if you love only those who love you, 
what reward do you get for that? 
do not the very taxgatherers do as much? 
Lk. 6:33-34 If you help only those who help you, what 
meru is that to you? 
Why, even sinful men do that. 
If you only lend to those from whom you hope 
to get something, what credit is that 1o you? 
Even sinful men lend to one another, so as to 
get a farr return. | 
And if you only salute your friends, what is 
special about that? 
do not the very pagans do as much? 
Lk. 6:35 No, you must love your enemies and help them, 





2 Leviticus 19: 18; Deuteronomy 23: 6; 25: 19. > Lk. says, 
‘‘he is kind even to the ungrateful and the evil” (6: 35). 


‘[§ 24-d] Tue Earty Ministry—In Gauiten 37 


you must lend to them without expecting any 
return; 
then you will have a rich reward. 
You must be perfect as your heavenly Father 
is perfect. 


d). The Practice of Charity. 


Take care not to practise your charity before 
men in order to be noticed; otherwise you get 
no reward from your Father in heaven. No, 

When you give alms, 
make no flourish of trumpets like the hypo- 
crites in the synagogues and the 
streets, 
so as to win applause from men; 
I tell you truly, they do get their 
reward. 
When you give alms, 
do not let your left hand know what your 
right hand is doing, 
so as to keep your alms secret; 
then your Father who sees what is 
secret will reward you openly. 


e). Prayer. 


Also, when you pray, you must not be like 
, the hypocrites, 
for they like to stand and pray in the syna- 
gogues and at the street-corners, 
so as to be seen by men; 
I tell you truly, they do get their 
reward. 
When you pray, 
go into your room and shut the door, 
pray to your Father who is in secret, 
and your Father who sees what is 
secret will reward you. 


Mt. 6: 1-4 


Mt. 6:5-15 


38 Tue Srory or JESUS [§ 24-f] 


Do not pray by idle rote like pagans, 
for they suppose they will be heard the 
more they say; 
you must not copy them; 
your Father knows your needs before you 
ask him. 
Let this be how you pray?: 
‘our Father in heaven, 
thy name be revered, 
thy Reign begin, 
thy will be done 
on earth as in heaven! ; 
give us to-day ° our bread for the morrow, 
and forgive us our debts 
as we ourselves have forgiven our 
debtors, 
and lead us not into temptation 
but deliver us from evil.’ 
For if you forgive men their trespasses, 
then your heavenly Father will forgive you; 
but if you do not forgive men, 
your Father will not forgive your trespasses 
either. 
f). Fasting. 
Mit. 6: 16-18 When you fast, 
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, 
for they look woebegone to let men see 
they are fasting; 
I tell you truly, they do get their 
reward. 
But when you fast, 
anoint your head and wash your face, 
so that your fast may be seen not by men 
but by your Father who is in secret, 
and your Father who sees what is 
secret will reward you. 
@ Cp. Lk. 11: 2-4 (§ 56). ’Lk.: “day by day” (11: 8). 


-[§ 24-2] Tor Earty Ministry—In GALILEE 39 


&). Possessions?. 


Store up no treasures for yourselves on earth, Mt. 6:19-34 
where moth and rust corrode, Lk. 11: 34-36 
where thieves break in and steal: 
store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, 
where neither moth nor rust corrode, 
where thieves do not break in and steal. 
For where your treasure lies, 
your heart will lie there too. 
The eye is the lamp of the body: 
so, if your Eye is generous, 
the whole of your body will be illumined, 
but if your Eye is selfish, 
the whole of your body will be darkened. 
And if your very light turns dark, 
then—what a darkness it is! 

So wf your whole body has light, without any Lk. 11:36 
corner of it in darkness, ut will be lit up entirely, 
as when a lamp lights you with its rays. 

No one can serve two masters: 
either he will hate one and love the other, 
or else he will stand by the one and 
despise the other— 
you cannot serve both God and Mammon. 
Therefore I tell you, 
do not trouble about what you are to eat 
or drink in life, 
nor about what you are to put on your 
body; 
surely life means more than food, 
surely the body means more than clothes! 
Look at the wild birds; 
they sow not, they reap not, they gather 
nothing in granaries, 


@ Cp. Lk. 12: 22-34 (§ 58); 16: 13 (§ 67). 


40 THE Story or JESUS [§ 24-h] 


and yet your heavenly Father feeds 
them. 
Are you not worth more than birds? 
Which of you can add an ell to his height 
by troubling about it? 
And why should you trouble over cloth- 
ing? 
Look how the lilies of the field grow; 
they neither toil nor spin, 
and yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all 
his grandeur was never robed like 
one of them. 
Now if God so clothes the grass of the field which 
blooms to-day and is thrown to-morrow into the 
furnace, will not he much more clothe you? O 
men, how little you trust him! Do not be trou- 
bled, then, and cry, ‘What are we to eat?’ or 
‘what are we to drink?’ or ‘how are we to be 
clothed?’ (pagans make all that their aim in life) 
for your heavenly Father knows quite well you 
Lk. 12:32 need all that. Fear not, you little flock, for your 
Father is delighted to give you the Realm. Seek 
God’s’ Realm and his goodness, and all that will 
be yours over and above. 
So do not be troubled about to-morrow; 
to-morrow will take care of itself. 
The day’s own trouble is quite enough for 
the day. 


h). Judging Others. 


Mt. 7:1-6 Judge not, that you may not be judged your- 

Lk. 6:37-42 selves; | 
for as you judge so you will be judged: 

Lk. 6:37-38 condemn not; and you will not be condemned: 


pardon, and you will be pardoned yourselves: 


[§ 2441] THe Earty Ministry—In Gainer 41 


give, and you will have ample measure given 
you— 
they will pour into your lap measure pressed 
down, 
shaken together, and running over; 
and the measure you deal out to others 
will be dealt out to yourselves.” 
He also told them a parabolic word: Lk. 6:39-40 
“Can one blind man lead another? 
wul they not both fall into a pit?? 
A scholar vs not above his teacher: 
but af he is perfectly trained he will be like 
his teacher”. 

Why do you note the splinter in your brother’s 
eye and fail to see the plank in your own eye? 
How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take 
out the splinter from your eye,’ when there lies 
the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite! take 
the plank out of your own eye first, and then you 
will see properly how to take the splinter out of 
your brother’s eye. 

Do not give dogs what is sacred and do not 
throw pearls before swine, in case they trample 
them under foot and turn to gore you. 


i). The Golden Rule etc. °¢. 


Ask and the gift will be yours, Mt. 7: 7-20 
seek and you will find, Lk. 6:43-45 
knock and the door will open to you; 
for every one who asks receives, 
the seeker finds, 
the door is opened to anyone who knocks. 
Why, which of you, when asked by his son 
for a loaf, will hand him a stone? 





@Cp. Mt. 15:14 ($39). ® Cp. Mt. 10: 24-25 (§ 35, b). 
© Cp. Lk. 11: 9-13 (§ 56); 13: 24 (§ 62). 


Ek. 6:46 


42 Tue Story or JESUS [$ 24-4] 


Or, if he asks a fish, will you hand him a 
serpent? 
Well, if for all your evil you know to give 
your children what is good, 
how much more will your Father in heaven 
give good gifts” to those who ask him? 
Well then, whatever you would like men to do 


to you, do just the same to them; that is the 


meaning of the Law and the prophets. 
Enter by the narrow gate: 
for [the gate] is broad and the road is wide 
that leads to destruction, 
and many enter that way. 
But the road that leads to life is both narrow 
and close, 
and there are few who find it. 

Beware of false prophets; they come to you 
with the garb of sheep but at heart they are 
ravenous wolves. You will know them by their 
fruit; do men gather grapes from thorns or figs 
from thistles? No, 

every good tree bears sound fruit, 
but a rotten tree bears bad fruit; 
a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, 
and a rotten tree cannot bear sound fruit. 

So you will know them by their fruit. Any tree 
that does not produce sound fruit will be cut down 
and thrown into the fire. 

The good man produces good from the good 
stored in his heart, 
and the evil man evil from his evil: 
for a man’s mouth utters what his heart is 


full of ®. 


@Lk.: “give the holy Spirit”’ (11: 13). 
&’ Cp. Mt. 12: 34-35 (§ 29, a). 





[§ 25-a] Tuer Earty Ministry—In GALILtEr 43 


j). The Supreme Test—Doing God’s Will. 


Why call me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ and obey me not? It 
is not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord!’ who 
will get into the Realm of heaven, but he who does 
the will of my Father in heaven. Many wili say 
to me at that Day’, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not 
prophesy in your name? did we not cast out 
daemons in your name? did we not perform many 
miracles in your name?’ Then I will declare to 
them, ‘I never knew you; depart from my pres- 
ence, you workers of iniquity °.’ 

Now, everyone who listens to these words of 
mine and acts upon them will be like a sensible 
man who dug deep down and built his house on 
rock. The rain came down, the floods rose, the 
winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did 
not fall, for it was founded on rock. And everyone 
who listens to these words of mine and does not 
act upon them will be like a stupid man who built 
his house on sand’. ‘The rain came down, the 
floods rose, the winds blew and beat upon that 
house, and down it fell—with a mighty crash.”’ 

When Jesus finished his speech, the crowds 
were astounded at his teaching; for he taught 
them like an authority, not like their own scribes. 
When he came down from the hill, he was fol- 
lowed by large crowds. 


25. Two Wonderful Healings. 
a). The Captain’s Servant. 


When he had finished what he had to say in the 


hearing of the people, he went into Capharnahum. 





@ Cp. Lk. 13: 26-27 (§ 62). > Psalm 6:8. 
¢ Lk.: ‘‘on the earth with no foundation” (6; 49). 


Mt. 7:21-8:1 
Lk. 6:46-49 
Lk. 6:46 


Lk. 6:48 


Lk. 7:1-10) 
Mt. 8: 5-13. 


Mt. 8:6 


Lk. 7: 11-17 


4A Tue Strory or JESUS [§ 25-b] 


Now there was an army-captain who had a 
servant ill whom he valued very highly. This 
man was il with paralysis, at the point of death; 
so, when the captain heard about Jesus, he sent 
some Jewish elders to him%, asking him to come 
and make his servant well. When they reached 
Jesus they asked him earnestly to do this. ‘‘He 
deserves to have this favour from you,” they said, 
“for he is a lover of our nation; it was he who 
built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them. 
But he was not far from the house when the cap- 


; 


tain sent some friends to tell him, “‘ Do not trouble. — 


vourself, sir, I am not fit to have you under my 
roof, and so I did not consider myself fit even to 
come to you. Just say the word, and let my serv- 
ant be cured. For though I am a man under 
authority myself, I have soldiers under me; I 
tell one man to go, and he goes, I tell another to 
come, and he comes, I tell my servant, ‘Do this,’ 
and he does it.” When Jesus heard this he mar- 
velled at him, and turning to the crowd that fol- 
lowed he said, “I tell you, I have never met 
faith like this anywhere even in Israel.’ Then 
the messengers went back to the house and found 
the sick servant was quite well. 


b). The Widow’s Son. 


It was shortly afterwards that he made his 
way to a town called Nain', accompanied by his 
disciples and a large crowd. Just as he was near 
the gate of the town, there was a dead man being 
carried out; he was the only son of his mother, 
and she was a widow. A large crowd from the 





2Jn Mt.’s account, the captain himself comes and the con- 
versation takes place between the captain and Jesus. 





1 Nain was a village twenty-five miles southwest of Caphar- 
nahum. 


[§ 26] Tur Earty Ministry—In GALILEE 45 


town were with her. And when the Lord! saw 
her, he felt pity for her and said to her, “Do not 
weep.” Then he went forward and touched the 
bier; the bearers stopped, and he said, “‘ Young 
man, I bid you rise.”’ Then the corpse sat up 
and began to speak; and Jesus gave him back to 
his mother. Ali were seized with awe and glorified 
God. “A great prophet has appeared among 
us,” they said, “God has visited his people.” 
And this story of Jesus spread through the whole 
of Judaea and all the surrounding country. 


26. Jesus’ Estimate of John. 


John’s disciples reported all this to him in 
prison. So John summoned two of his disciples 
and sent them to ask the Lord, ‘“‘Are you the Com- 
ing One?? Or are we to look out for someone 
else?”? When the men reached Jesus they said, 
“John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask if 
you are the Comimg One or if we are to look out 
for someone else?” Jesus at that moment was 
healing many people of diseases and complaints 
and evil spirits; he also bestowed sight on many 
blind folk. ‘So he replied, “*Go and report to 
John what you have seen and heard; that the 
blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the 
deaf hear, the dead are raised, and to the poor 
the gospel is preached*. And blessed is he who is 
repelled by nothing in me!’ When John’s mes- 





@ Cp. Isaiah 29: 18-19; 35: 5-6; 61: 1. 





1 Luke uses the word “Lord” more frequently than Matthew 
or Mark. Its use suggests the developing thought concerning 
Jesus. 

? John’s question is raised because Jesus is not advancing 
the Realm of God by the spectacular means John expected 
him to use. ‘“The Coming One” = the Messiah. 


Lk. 7: 18-35 

Mt. 11: 2-19, 
28-30 

Lk. 16:16 

Mt. 11:2 


46 Tue Story or JEsSus [§ 26] 


sengers had gone, he proceeded to speak to the 
crowds about John: 
‘What did you go out to the desert to see? 
A reed swayed by the wind? 
Come, what did you go out to see? 
A man arrayed in soft robes? 
Those who are gorgeously dressed and 
luxurious live in royal palaces. | 
Come, what did you go out to see? A 
prophet? 
Yes, I tell you, and far more than a 
prophet. 
This is he of whom it is written‘, 
Here I send my messenger before your face, 
to prepare the way for you. 
I tell you, among the sons of women there is none 
greater than John, and yet the least in the Realm 


Mt.11:12-16; of God is greater than he is. From the days of 


Lk. 16:16 


John the Baptist tall now the Realm of heaven suffers 
violence, and the violent press into it. For all the 
prophets and the law prophesied of at until J ohn:— 
uf you care to believe rt, he rs the Elijah who is to 
come’, He who has an ear, let him listen to this.” 
(On hearing this all the people and the taxgather- 
ers acknowledged the justice of God, as they had 
been baptized with the baptism of John; but the 
Pharisees and jurists, who had refused his bap- 
tism, frustrated God’s purpose for themselves. ) 
“To what then shall I compare the men of this 
generation? 
What are they like? 
Like children sitting in the marketplace and 
calling to one another, 
“We piped to you and you would not dance, 
we lamented and you would not weep.’ 


@ Malachi 3: 1. ® Malachi 4: 5. 


[§ 27] Tue Earty Ministry—In GALitEn 47 


For John the Baptist has come, eating no 
bread and drinking no wine, 
and you say, ‘He has a devil’; 
the Son of man has come eating and drinking, 
and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a 
drunkard, 
a friend of taxgatherers and sinners!’ 
Nevertheless, Wisdom! is vindicated by all her 
children ®. 
Come to me, all who are eur and bur- Mt. 11:28-30 
dened, 
and I will refresh you. 
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, 
for I am gentle and humble in heart, 
and you will find your souls refreshed’; 
my yoke is kindly and my burden light?.” 


27. The Woman Who Was a Sinner’. 


One of the Pharisees asked him to dinner, and Lk. 7:36-50 
entering the house of the Pharisee he reclined at 
table®. Now there was a woman in the town who 
was a sinner, and when she found out that Jesus 
was at table in the house of the Pharisee she 
brought an alabaster flask of perfume and stood 





¢Mt : “by all that she does”’ (11: 19). > Cp. Jeremiah 6: 16. 
¢Cp. Mt. 26: 6-16 and Mk. 14: 3-9 ($94) for a somewhat 
similar incident. 





'Presumably Wisdom is the wisdom of God to whom John 
and Jesus owe their inspiration. This wisdom is vindicated 
by those who have the capacity to appreciate it, and see it 
at work in the quiet ministry of Jesus. 

* These verses vividly contrast the way of Jesus and the con- 
ception of religion held by the Pharisees. The Pharisees 
burdened men with the minute exactions of the Law. Jesus 
gives men the help of a personal allegiance to a sufficient friend. 
5 The use of couches on which to recline at table was a custom 
borrowed from the Persians and the Greeks. 


48 Tue Story or JESUS [$ 27] 


behind him at his feet in tears!; her tears began 
to wet his feet, so she wiped them with the hair 
of her head, pressed kisses on them, and anointed 
them with the perfume. When his host the 
Pharisee noticed this, he said to himself, ‘“‘If he 
was a prophet he would know what sort of a 
woman this is who is touching him?; for she isa 
sinner.” Then Jesus addressed him. “Simon,” 
he said, “I have something to say to you.” 
““Speak, teacher,” he said. ‘There was a money- 
lender who had two debtors; one owed him 
fifty pounds, the other five. As they were unable to. 
pay, he freely forgave them both. ‘Tell me, now, 
which of them will love him most?” ‘I suppose,” 
said Simon, “‘the man who had most forgiven.” 
“Quite right,” he said. Then turning to the 
woman he said to Simon, “ You see this woman? 
When I came into your house, 
you never gave me water for my feet’, 
while she has wet my feet with her tears 
and wiped them with her hair; 
you never gave me a kiss’, 
while ever since she came in she has kept 
pressing kisses on my feet; 
you never anointed my head with oil®, 
while she has anointed my feet with per- 
fume. 
Therefore I tell you, many as her sins are, they 
are forgiven, for her love is great; whereas he 
to whom little is forgiven has but little love.” 





1 Oriental hospitality made it possible for anyone to enter a 
house and look on while a meal was in progress. 

2 A prophet was supposed to have special insight into character. 
3 Simon had been remiss in the duties of a host. The use of 
sandals made necessary some provision for removing the dust 
of the road from a traveller’s feet. 

4 The kiss is the ordinary salutation of respect in the East. 

* Anointing with oil was an exceptional honor offered a guest. 


[§ 29] Tue Earty Ministry—In GaLtiter 49 


And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 
His fellow guests began to say to themselves, 
“Who is this, to forgive even sins?”’” But he said 
to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go 
in peace.” 


28. A Preaching Tour. 


Shortly afterwards he went travelling from one 
town and village to another preaching and telling 
the good news of the Reign of God; he was 
accompanied by the twelve and by some women 
who had been healed of evil spirits and illnesses, 
Mary called Magdalene (out of whom seven 
daemons had been driven), Joanna the wife of 
Chuza the chancellor of Herod, Susanna, and a 
number of others, who ministered to him out of 
their means. 


29. Further Conflict with the Scribes. 
a). Alliance with Satan. 


Then they went indoors, but the crowd gathered 
again, so that it was wmpossible even to have a meal. 
And when his family heard this, they set out to get 
hold of him, for what they said was, “He is out of 
his mind.” 

Then a blind and dumb demoniac was brought 
to him, and he healed him, so that the dumb man 
spoke and saw. And all the crowds were amazed ; 
they said, “Can this be the Son of David!?”’ But 
when the Pharisees and the scribes who had come 
down from Jerusalem heard of it they said, “‘ This 
fellow only casts out daemons by Beelzebul? the 





1A Messianic title. 

2 Beelzebul is not considered the chief of the daemons by Mark. 
It is rather a term of reproach, or the name of the daemon 
with whom Jesus was supposed to be possessed. 


Lk. 8:1-3 


Mt. 12: 22-37 
Mk. 3:19-30 
Lk. 11: 14-23 
Lk. 12:10 


Mk. 3:19-21 


Mk. 3:22 


50 THE Story oF JESUS [§ 29-a] 
prince of daemons.’ As Jesus knew what they 
were thinking, he said to them, 
Mk. 8:23 “How can Satan cast out Satan? 
Any realm divided against itself comes to 
ruin, 
any city or house divided against itself will 
never stand; 
and if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided | 
against himself; 
how then can his realm stand? 
Besides, if I cast out daemons by Beelzebul, 
by whom do your sons cast them out? 
Thus they will be your judges. 
But if I cast out daemons by the Spirit of 
God, 
then the Reign of God has reached you 
already. 

Why, how can anyone enter the strong man’s 
house and plunder his goods, unless he first of all 
binds the strong man? Then he can plunder his 
house. 

He whe is not with me is against me, 
and he who does not gather with me scatters. 
I tell you therefore, men will be forgiven any 
sin and blasphemy, 
but they will not be forgiven for blasphem- 
ing the Spirit. 
Whoever says a word against the Son of man 
will be forgiven, 
but whoever speaks against the holy Spirit 
will never be forgiven, 
neither in this world nor in the world to 
come, 
Mk. 3:29-30 he is guilty of an eternal sin.” 

(This was because they said, *‘ He has an unclean 

sprrit.””) 


[§ 29-b] THe Earty Ministry—In Gauiter 51 


** Either make the tree good and its fruit good, 
or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten; 
for the tree is known by its fruit. 

You brood of vipers, how can you speak good 
when you are evil? 
For the mouth utters what the heart is full 
of. 
The good man brings good out of his good 
store, ; 
and the evil man brings evil out of his store 
of evil?. 
I tell you, men will have to account on the day 
of judgment for every light word they utter; 
for by your words you will be acquitted, 
and by your words you will be condemned.” 


b). Request for a Sign. 


Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to 
him, ‘‘ Teacher, we would like to have some Sign 
from you.” He replied to them, 

“Tt is an evil and disloyal generation that 
. craves a Sign, 
but no Sign will be given to it except the 
Sign of the prophet Jonah?; 
for as Jonah was three days and three 
nights in the belly of the whale’, 
so the Son of man will be three days and 
three nights in the heart of the earth?. 
The men of Ninive will rise at the judgment 
with this generation and condemn it; 
for when Jonah preached they did 
repent®, 
and here is One greater than Jonah. 





* Cp. Lk. 6: 43-45 (§ 24, i). ® Jonah 3:1-10. ¢ Jonah 1:17. 
#Lk.: “For as Jonah was a Sign to the Ninivites, so shall the 
Son of man be to this generation”’ (11: 30). 


Mt. 12:38-45 
Lk. 11: 24-32 


Mk. 3:31-35 
Mt. 12:46-50 
Lk. 8:19-21 
Mt. 12:46 


Mk. 4: 1-12 
Mt. 13: 1-17 
Lk. 8:4-10 


52 Tue Story or Jesus [§ 31-a] 


The queen of the South will rise at the 
judgment with this generation and 
condemn it; 

for she came from the ends of the earth 

to listen to the wisdom of Solomon ”, 

and here is One greater than Solomon. 
When an unclean spirit leaves a man, it roams 
through dry places in search of refreshment and 
finds none. Then it says, ‘I will go back to the 
house I left,’ and when it comes it finds the house 
vacant, clean, and allin order. Then it goes off to 
fetch seven other spirits worse than itself; they 
go in and dwell there, and the last state of that 
man is worse than the first. This is how it will be 

with the present evil generation.” 


30. Jesus’ Family Seek Him. 


While he was still speaking to the crowds, then 
came his brothers and his-mother, and standing 
outside they sent to call him; there was a crowd 
sitting round him, and he was told, ‘Here are 
your mother and brothers and sisters wanting 
you outside.’’ He replied, ‘‘Who are my mother 
and my brothers?” And glancing at those who 
were sitting round him in a circle he said, ‘‘ There 
are my mother and my brothers! Whosoever 
does the will of God, that is my brother and sister 
and mother.” 


31. Teaching by Parables. 
a). The Sower. 


Once more he proceeded to teach by the seaside, 
and a huge crowd gathered round him; so he 
entered a boat on the sea and sat down, while al! 





27 Kings 10: 1-3. 


[§ 31-a] Tur Earty Ministry—In Gauitern 53 


the crowd stayed on shore. He gave them many 
lessons in parables‘, and said to them in the course 
of his teaching: ‘‘ Listen, a sower went out to sow, 
and as he sowed it chanced that some seed fell on 
the road, and was trampled down and the birds 
came and ate it up; some other seed fell on stony 
soil where it had not much earth, and it shot up 
at once because it had no depth of earth, but when 
the sun rose it got scorched and withered away, 
because it had no root; some other seed fell 
among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and 
choked it, so it bore no crop; some other seed fell 
on good soil and bore a crop that sprang up and 
grew, yielding at the rate of thirty, sixty, and a 
hundredfold.””> He added, “Anyone who has 
ears to hear, let him listen to this.” 

When he was by himself his adherents and the 
twelve asked him about the parable, and he said 
to them: ‘The open secret of the Realm of God 
is granted to you, but these outsiders get every- 

‘thing by way of parables, so that 
for all their seeing they may not perceive, 
and for all their hearing they may not under- 
stand, 
lest they turn and be forgiven. 
In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being ful- 
filled: 
You will hear and hear but never understand, 
You will see and see but never percewe. 


@ Tsaiah 6: 9-10. 








1The parable is a new method of teaching for Jesus. A 
parable is a story which expresses spiritual truths in terms 
of natural life. It reveals its message only to those who take 
time to consider it. The use of the parable enabled Jesus 
to sift out of the crowds those who-were in earnest about his 
real message and purpose. 


Lk. 8:6 


Mt. 13:14-17 


Mk. 4:13-25 
Mt. 13: 18-23 
Lk. 8:11-18 
Lk. 8:11 


Mt. 13:19 


Lk. 8:18 


Lk. 8:14 


54 ’ Tue Story or JESUS [§ 31-b] 


For the heart of this people ts obtuse, 
their ears are heavy of hearing, 
their eyes they have closed, 
lest they see with their eyes and hear with 
their ears, 
lest they understand with their heart and 
turn again, and I cure them. 
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, 
and your ears, for they hear! 
IT tell you truly, many prophets and hee men 
have longed to see what you see, 
but they have not seen tt; 
and to hear what you hear, 
but they have not heard 2t*.” 


b). The Sower Explained. 


And he said to them, “‘ You do not understand 
this parable? Then how are you to understand 
the other parables? The sower sows the word. 
(The seed 1s the word of God.) As for those ‘on 
the road,’ when the seed is sown there—as soon 
as they hear it and do not understand it, Satan at 
once comes and carries off the word sown within 
them. Similarly those who are sown ‘on stony 
soil’ are the people who on hearing the word 
accept it with enthusiasm; but they have no 
root in themselves, they do not last; the next 
thing is that when the word brings trouble or 
persecution or in the hour of trial, they are at 
dnce repelled. Another set are those who are 
sown ‘among thorns’; they listen to the word, 
but the worries of the world and the delight of 
being rich and the pleasures of life and all the 
other passions come in to choke the word; so it 
proves unfruitful. As for those who are sown 


@ Cp. Lk. 10: 23-24 (§ 53). 


{§ 31-c] Tue Earty Ministry—In Gainer 55 


‘on good soil,’ these are the people who listen to 
the word in a good and sound heart and understand 
ait and take it in and bear fruit at the rate of 
thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” 

He also said to them, 


“Is a lamp brought to be placed under a bowl 
or a bed? 
Is it not to be placed upon the stand?? 
Nothing is hidden except to be disclosed, 
nothing concealed except to be revealed. 


If anyone has an ear to hear, let him listen to 
this.” Also he said to them, ‘Take care what 
you hear; the measure you deal out to others will 
be dealt out to yourselves, and you will receive 
extra. 
For he who has, to him shall more be given; 
while as for him who has not, from him shall 
be taken even what he has.” 


c). The Wheat and the Weeds. 


He put another parable before them. ‘The 
Realm of heaven!,”’ he said, “‘is like a man who 
sowed good seed in his field, but while men slept 
his enemy came and resowed weeds among the 
wheat and then went away. When the blade 
sprouted and formed the kernel, then the weeds 
appeared as well. So the servants of the owner 
went to him and said, ‘Did you not sow good seed 
in your field, sir? How then does it contain 
weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done 
this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Then would 
you like us to go and gather them?’ ‘No,’ he 
said, ‘for you might root up the wheat when you 


2 Cp. Mt. 5:15 and Lk. 11:33 (§ 24, b). 


1 Mt.’s “ Realm of heaven” is the equivalent of the “‘ Realm of 
God” of Mk. and Lk. They are interchangeable terms. 





Lk. 8:15 
Mt. 13:23 


Mt. 13: 24-38 


Mk. 4: 26-34 
Mt. 13:31-35 
Lk. 13: 18-21 


Mt. 13:33 


Mi. 13:35 


56 THE Story or JESUS [§ 31-d] 


were gathering the weeds. Let them both grow 
side by side till harvest; and at harvest-time I 
will tell the reapers to gather the weeds first and 
tie them in bundles to be burnt, but to collect 
the wheat in my granary.’ ” 


d). Unnoticed Growth. 
And he said, ‘‘It is with the Realm of God! as 


when a man has sown seed on earth; he sleeps 
at night and rises by day, and the seed sprouts 
and shoots up—he knows not how. (For the earth 
bears crops by itself, the blade first, the ear of 
corn next, and then the grain full in the ear.) 
But whenever the crop is ready, he has the sickle 
put in at once, as harvest has come?.”’ 

He said also, 

“To what can we compare the Realm of God? 
how are we to put it in a parable? 
It is like a grain of mustard-seed—less than any 
seed on earth when it is sown on earth; but once 
sown it springs up to be larger than any plant, 
throwing out such big branches that the wild 
birds can roost under its shadow.”’ 

He told them another parable. ‘The Realm of 
heaven,” he said, “is like dough which a woman 
took and buried in three pecks of flour, till all of it 
was leavened.” 

In many a parable like this he spoke the word 
to them, so far as they could listen to it; he 
never spoke to them except by way of parable, 
to fulfil what had been said by the prophet’, 

I will open my mouth in parables, 
I will speak out what has been hidden since the 
foundation of the world. 


@ Cp. Joel 3: 13: > Psalm 78: 2. 











1See note on “Realm of heaven,” p. 55. 


[§ 31-e] Ture Earty Ministry—In Gainer 57 


But in private he explained everything to his own 
disciples. 


e). The Wheat and the Weeds Explained. 


Then he left the crowds and went indoors. And 
his disciples came up to him saying, “Explain to 
us the parable of the weeds in the field.”’ So he 
replied, ‘‘He who sows the good seed is the Son 
of man; the field is the world; the good seed 
means the sons of the Realm; the weeds are the 
sons of the evil one; the enemy who sowed them 
is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world, 
and the reapers are the angels. Well then, just 
as the weeds are gathered and burnt in the fire, 
so will it be at the end of the world; the Son of 
man will despatch his angels, and they will gather 
out of his Realm all who are hindrances and who 
practise iniquity, and throw them into the furnace 
of fire; there men will wail and gnash their teeth. 
Then the just will shine like the sun in the Realm 
of their Father. He who has an ear, let him listen 
to this. 


f). Other Parables of the Realm. 


The Realm of heaven is like treasure hidden in 
a field; the man who finds it hides it and in his 
delight goes and sells all he possesses and buys 
that field. 

Again, the Realm of heaven is like a trader in 
search of fine pearls; when he finds a single pearl 
of high price, he is off to sell all he possesses and 
buy it. 

Again, the Realm of heaven is like a net which 
was thrown into the sea and collected fish of every 
sort. When it was full, they dragged it to the 
beach and sitting down they gathered the good 
fish into vessels but flung away the bad. So will 


Mt. 13:36-43 


Mt. 13: 44-53 


MK. 4:35-41 
Mt. 8: 18-27 
Lk. 8: 22-25 


Mt. 8:18 


Mt. 8:27 


Mk. 5:1-20 
Mt. 8:28-34 
Lk. 8: 26-39 
Lk. 8: 26-27 


58 Tue Story or JESUS [$ 32] 


it be at the end of the world. The angels will go 
out and separate the evil from among the just 
and fling them into the furnace of fire; there men 
will wail and gnash their teeth. 

Have you understood all this?” They said to 
him, ‘‘Yes.”’ So he said to them, ‘‘Well then, 
every scribe who has become a disciple of the 
Realm of heaven is like a householder who pro- 
duces what is new and what is old from his stores.”’ 


32. A Storm Stilled. 


That same day when evening came and he saw 
crowds round him, he said to them, ‘‘Let us cross 
to the other side’’; so, leaving the crowd, they 
took him just as he was in the boat, accompz nied 
by some other boats. But a heavy squall of wind! 
came on, and the waves splashed into the boat, 
so that the boat filled. He was sleeping on the 
cushion in the stern, so they- woke him up saying, 
‘Teacher, are we to drown, for all you care??”’ 
And he woke up, checked the wind, and told the 
sea, ““Peace, be quiet.”” The wind fell and there 
was a great calm. Then he said to them, ‘“‘Why 
are you afraid hke this? Have you no faith yet?” 
But they marvelled and were overawed and said 
to each other, ‘‘Whatever can he be, when the 
very wind and sea obey him?” 


33. A Series of Healings. 
a). The Gerasene Demoniac. 


Then they reached the opposite side of the sea, 
the country of the Gerasenes?® on the shore facing 
2 Mt.: “Help, Lord, we are drowning!”’ (8:25). °&Mt.: “the 
Gadarenes”’ (8: 28). Lk.: ‘‘the Gergesenes”’ (8: 26). 


1The Sea of Galilee is subject to violent squalls which rise — 
quickly and as suddenly die down. 








[§ 33-a] THe Earty Ministry—In Gainer 59 


Galilee’. And as soon as he stepped out of the 
boat a man from the tombs came to meet him, a 
man from the town with an unclean spirit* who 
dwelt among the tombs, so violent that nobody could 
pass along the road there. By this time no one 
could bind him, not even with a chain, for he had 
often been bound with fetters and chains and 
had snapped the chains and broken the fetters— 
nobody could tame him. For a long time he had 
worn no clothing. All night and day among the 
tombs and the hills he shrieked and gashed him- 
self with stones. On catching sight of Jesus from 
afar he ran and knelt before him, shrieking aloud, 
“Jesus, son of God most High, what business 
have you with me? By God, I adjure you, do not 
torture me.” (For he had said, “Come out of 
the man, you unclean spirit.”’) Jesus asked him, 
“What is your name?” ‘‘Legion?,” he said, 
“there is a host of us.’ And they begged him 
earnestly not to send them out of the country. 
Now a large drove of swine? was grazing there on 





* Mt. alone says there were two men (8: 28). 


1Two sections have been identified as the country of the 
Gerasenes. On the northeast coast of the Sea of Galilee 
was the town of Gerasa. The city of Gadara is near the 
southeast coast. There is doubt as to which of these cities 
is meant. In either case the town seems to be back a bit 
from the shore and to be approached by a road along whose 
sides were cave-like tombs cut out of the rock. 

* Every daemon was supposed to haveaname. Corresponding 
with each name were certain other names or phrases which 
the daemon could not abide. The repetition of this charmed 
name drove the daemonaway. The exorcist’s first task was to 
find out the name of the daemon with which he was dealing, 
and then he could drive the daemon out by using the corre- 
sponding name. This man was possessed by not one but 
many daemons. Recall Mary of Magdala who had seven 
daemons. Lk. 8:2 (§28). *The population of this side of 
the sea must have been of mixed character. People who 
kept so many swine could not have been strict Jews. 


Mt. 8:28 


Lk. 8:27 


L&. 8:37 


Mk. 5: 21-43 
Mt. 9:1, 18-26 
Lk. 8:40-56 
Lk. 8:40 


60 THe Story or JESUS * [$ 33-b] 


the hillside; so the spirits begged him saying, 
“Send us into the swine, that we may enter 
them.” And Jesus gave them leave. Then out 
came the unclean spirits and entered the swine, 
and the drove rushed down the steep slope into the 
sea (there were about two thousand of them) and 
in the sea they were drowned. 

The herdsmen fled and reported it to the town 
and the hamlets. So the people came to see what 
had happened, and when they reached Jesus they 
saw the lunatic sitting down, clothed and in his 
sober senses—the man who had been possessed 
by ‘Legion.’ That frightened them. And those . 
who had seen it related to them what had hap- 
pened to the lunatic and the swine. Then they 
began begging Jesus to leave their district, they 
were so seized with terror. As he was stepping 
into the boat the lunatic begged that he might 
accompany him; but he said, “‘Go home to your 
own people, and report to thém all the Lord has 
done for you and how he took pity on you.”’ So 
he went off and began to proclaim throughout 
Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; it 
made everyone astonished. 


b). Jairus’ Daughter. 
c). A Woman With a Hemorrhage. 


Now when Jesus had crossed in the boat to the 
other side again, a large crowd gathered round 
him and welcomed him; they were all looking out 
for him; so he remained beside the sea*. 

A president of the synagogue called Jairus came 
up, and on catching sight of him fell at his feet 
with earnest entreaties. ‘‘My little girl is dying,” 
he said, ““do come and lay your hands on her that 


@Mt.: “he crossed over to his own town” (9: 1). 


[§ 38-c] Tae Earty Ministry—In GALILEE 61 


she may recover and live.”’ So Jesus went away 
with him. 

Now a large crowd followed him; they pressed 
round him. And there was a woman who had had 
a hemorrhage! for twelve years—she had suffered 
a great deal under a number of doctors and had 
spent all her means but was none the better; in 
fact she was rather worse. She heard about Jesus, 
got behind him in the crowd, and touched his robe; 
“Tf I can touch even his clothes,’ she said to 
herself, “I will recover.” And at once the 
hemorrhage stopped, and she felt in her body 
that she was cured of her complaint. Jesus was 
at once conscious that some healing virtue had 
passed from him, so he turned round in the crowd 
and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” His 
disciples said to him, “You see the crowd are 
pressing round you, and yet you ask, ‘Who 
touched me?’”’ But he kept looking round to 
see who had done it, and the woman, knowing 
what had happened to her, came forward in fear 
and trembling and fell down before him, telling 
him all the truth. He said to her, “ Daughter, 
Courage, your faith has made you well; go in 
peace and be free from your complaint.” And 
the woman was well from that hour. 

He was still speaking when a message came 
from the house of the synagogue-president, “‘ Your 
daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher to 
come any further?’ Instantly Jesus ignored the 
remark and told the president, ““Have no fear, 
only believe and she shall get well.” He would 
not allow anyone to accompany him except 
Peter and James and John the brother of James. 





‘Such an affliction was a disgrace since disease was 
commonly thought to be the result of sin. A long continuing 
disease suggested great sin. 


Mt. 9:22 


Lk. 8:50 


Mt. 9:28 


Lk. 8:53 


Mt. 9:26 


Mt. 9: 27-34 


62 THE Story oF JESUS [§ 33-d] 


So they reached the president’s house, where hesaw 
the flute-players! and a tumult of people wailing and 
making shrill laments; and on entering he asked 
them, “Why make a noise and wail? The child is 
not dead but asleep.” They laughed at him know- 
ung that she was dead. However, he put them all 
outside and taking the father and mother of the 
child as well as his companions he went in to where 
the child was lying; then he took the child’s hand — 
and said to her, “‘ Talitha koum’’—which may be 
translated, “‘ Little girl, I am telling you to rise.”’ 
The girl got up at once and began to walk (she 
was twelve years old); and at once they were. 
lost in utter amazement. But he strictly forbade 
them to let anyone know about it, and told them 
to give her something to eat. The report of this 
went all over the country. 


d). The Blind and the Dumb. 


As Jesus passed along from there, he was fol- 
lowed by two blind men who shrieked, “Son of 
David, have pity on us!’ When he went indoors 
the blind men came up to him, and Jesus asked 
them, ““Do you believe I can do this?’ They 
said, ““ Yes, sir.” Then he touched their eyes and 
said, ““As you believe, so your prayer is granted,” 
and their eyes were opened. Jesus sternly charged 
them, “‘See, nobody is to know of this.”” But they 
went,out and spread the news of him all over that 
country. As they went out, a dumb man was 
brought to him, who was possessed by a daemon, 
and when the daemon had been cast out, the 
dumb man spoke. Then the crowd marvelled; 
they said, “Such a thing has never been seen in 
Israel !”’ 


1These were hired mourners. ‘“‘Even the poorest in Israel 
will provide two flutes and a wailer.”’ 


[§ 34] Tur Earty Ministry—In Gauiien 63 


34. Rejection at Nazaret *. 


Leaving there he went to his native place, 
followed by his disciples. When the sabbath 
came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and the 
large audience was astounded. ‘Where did he 
get all this?” they said. ‘“‘What is the meaning 
of this wisdom he is endowed with? And these 
miracles, too, that his hands perform! Is this 
not the joiner, the son of Mary and the brother 
of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are 
not his sisters settled here among us?” So they 
were repelied by him. Then Jesus said to them, 
‘A prophet never goes without honour except in 
his native place and among his kinsfolk and in 
his home.” There he could not do any miracle, 
beyond laying his hands on a few sick people and 
curing them. He was astonished at their Jack of 


faith. 


35. The Mission of the Twelve °. 


a). The Occasion. 


Then Jesus made a tour through all the towns 
and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preach- 
ing the gospel of the Reign, and healing every 
disease and complaint. As he saw the crowds 
he was moved with pity for them; they were har- 
assed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. 
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is 
rich, but the labourers are few; so pray the Lord 
of the harvest to send labourers to gather his 
harvest.” 

And summoning his twelve disciples he gave 
them power over unclean spirits, power to cast 


2 Cp. also Lk. 4: 16-30 (§ 15). 
’ Cp. “The Mission of the Seventy,’’ Lk. 10: 1-24 (§ 53). 





Mk. 6:1-6 
Mt. 13:54-58 


Mt. 9:35=10:1 
Mk. 6: 6-9 
Lk. 9:1 


Mk. 6:8-9 


Mt. 10:5-33 
Mk. 6:10-11 
Lk. 9: 2-5 

Lk. 12: 1-9, 11-12 


64 Tuer Story or JESUS [§ 35-b] 


them out and also to heal every disease and every 
ailment, and ordered them to take nothing but a 
stick for the gourney, no bread, no wallet, no coppers 
in their girdle; they were to wear sandals, but not 
to put on two shirts, he said’. 


b). Instructions. 


These twelve men Jesus despatched with the - 
followmg instructions, “Do not go among the 
Gentiles and do not enter a Samaritan town 2, 
rather make your way to the lost sheep of the 
house of Israel. And preach as you go, tell men,. 
‘The Reign of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, 
raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out daemons; 
give without paying, as you have got without 
paying; you are not to take gold or silver or cop- 
pers in your girdle, nor a wallet for the road, nor 
two shirts, nor sandals, nor stick—the rorlenen 
deserves his rations. Whatever town or village 
you go into, find out a deserving inhabitant and 
stay with him till you leave. 

When you enter the house, salute it; 
if the household is deserving. 
Jet your peace rest on it; 
but if the household is undeserving, 
let your peace return to you. 
Whoever will not receive you or listen to your 
message, leave that house or town and shake off 
the very dust from your feet. I tell you truly, 
on the day of judgment it will be more bearable 





1 These instructions indicate that Jesus’ idea was simplicity 
and speed. They were to go unhindered and in perfect faith, 
dressed as a king’s messenger or runner would be dressed. 
>The Jews were expecting a “Reign of heaven.” They 
would more readily Jisten to its announcement. No explana- 
tion or argument would be needed. ‘The disciples could thus 
cover more territory. 


[§ 35-b] Tor Earty Ministry—In GAuitge 65 


for Sodom and Gomorra! than for that town. I 
am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so 
be wise like serpents and guileless like doves. 
When they persecute you in one town, flee to 
the next; truly I tell you, you will not have cov- 
ered the towns of Israel before the Son of man 
arrives. 
A scholar is not above his teacher, 
nor a servant above his lord; 
enough for the scholar to fare like his teacher, 
and the servant like his lord %. 
If men have called the master of the house 
Beelzebul, 
how much more will they miscall his serv- 
ants! 
Fear them not:— 
nothing is veiled that shall not be revealed, 
or hidden that shall not be known; | 
what I tell you in the dark, you must utter 
in the open, 
what you hear in a whisper you must 
proclaim on the housetop. 
Have no fear of those who kill the body but 
cannot kill the soul: 
rather fear Him who can destroy both soul 
and body in Gehenna. 
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? 
Yet not one of them will fall to the ground 
unless your Father wills it. 
The very hairs on your head are all numbered; 
fear not, then, you are worth far more than 
sparrows! 





2 Cp. Lk. 6:40 (§ 24, h). 





1 Ancient cities by the Dead Sea destroyed, as the record puts 
it, on account of their great wickedness. 


Mt. 10:34- 
11:1 


Mk. 6:12-13 
Lk. 12: 49-53 
Lk. 9:6 

Lk. 12: 49-50. 


66 


THE Story OF JESUS [§ 35-c] 


Everyone who will acknowledge me before 
men, 
I will acknowledge him before my Father 
in heaven; 
and whoever will disown me before men, 
I will disown him before my Father in 
heaven. 


c). Conditions of Discipleship. 


I have come to throw fire on earth. 
Would it were kindled already! 
I have a baptism to undergo. 
How I am distressed till vt 2s all over! 
Do not imagine I have come to bring peace 
on earth; 
I have not come to bring peace but a sword. 
I have come to set a man against his father, 
a daughter against her mother, 
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in- 
law; 
yes, a man’sown household will be his enemies’. 
He who loves father or mother more than me 
is not worthy of me; 
he who loves son or daughter more than me 
is not worthy of me: 
he who will not take his cross and follow after 
me 
is not worthy of me. 
He who has found his life will] lose it, 
and he who loses his life for my sake will find 
ite 
He who receives you receives me, 
and he who receives me receives Him who 
sent me. 





@ Cp. Lk. 14: 26-27 (§ 65); 17: 33 (§ 71); Mk. 8: 34-35 etc. 


(§ 45). > Micah 7: 6. 


fs 36] THe Earty Ministry—In GaAtitgEr 67 


He who receives a prophet because he is a 

prophet, 
will receive a prophet’s reward; 

he who receives a good man because he is 

good, 
will receive a good man’s reward. 

And whoever gives one of these little ones 
even a cup of cold water because he 
is a disciple, 

I tell you, he shall not lose his reward.” 

So they went out from village to village and Mk. 6:19-13 
preached repentance; also they cast out a number of Lk. 9:6 
daemons and cured a number of sick people by an- 
ointing them with oil}. 

After finishing these instructions to his twelve 
disciples, Jesus removed from there to teach and 
preach among their towns. 


36. Interest of Herod. 


Now this came to the hearing of king Herod Mk. 6: 14-29 
the tetrarch, for the name of Jesus had become well Mt. 14:1-12 
known; people said, “John the Baptizer has risen ae ins 
from the dead, that is why miraculous powers wks 
are working through him”’; others said, ‘‘It is 
Elijah,” others again, “Jt is a prophet, like one 
of the old prophets.’”’ But when Herod heard of 
it he said to his servants, “John has risen, the Mt. 14:2 
John I beheaded.’? For this Herod had sent and 
arrested John and bound him in prison on account 
of his marriage to Herodias the wife of his brother 
Philip’; John had told Herod, “You have no 
right to your brother’s wife.” Herodias had a 





1 Anointing with oil was a frequent specific in ordinary medical 
practice. 2 Herod had divorced his own wife and had 
married his brother’s wife while Philip was still living. This 
contravened the Levitical law. Leviticus 18: 16; 20: 21. 


Mt. 14:12 


Mk. 6:30-46 
Mt. 14:13-23 
Lk. 9:10-17 


68 Tue Story or JESUS [§ 37] 


grudge against him; she wanted him killed but 
she could not manage it, for Herod stood in awe 
of John, knowing he was a just and holy man; so 
he protected John—he was greatly exercised when 
he listened to him, still he was glad to listen to 
him. Then came a holiday, when Herod held a 
feast on his birthday for his chief officials and 
generals and the notables of Galilee. The daugh- 


ter of Herodias went in and danced to them}, - 


and Herod and his guests were so delighted that 
the king said to the girl, “Ask anything you like 
and I will give you it.” He swore to her, “I will 


give you whatever you want, were it the half of. 


my realm.’ So she went out and said to her 
mother, “What am I to ask?” “John the Bap- 
tizer’s head,’ she answered. ‘Then she hurried in 
at once and asked the king, saying, “I want you 
to give me this very moment John the Baptist’s 
head on a dish.” The king was very vexed, but 
for the sake of his oaths and his guests he did not 
like to disappoint her; so the king at once sent 
one of the guard with orders to bring his head. 
The man went and beheaded him in the prison, 
brought his head on a dish, and gave it to the girl; 
and the girl gave it to her mother. When his 
disciples heard of it they went and fetched his 
body and laid it ina tomb. Then they went and 
reported it to Jesus. 


37. Feeding the Multitude. 


Now the apostles gathered to meet Jesus and 
reported to him all they had done and taught. 
And he said to them, “‘Come away to some lonely 





1 Such dancing was usually done by licentious professionals. 
It was unprecedented for a respectable woman of rank to 
perform on such occasions. 


—— 


[§ 37] Tue Earty Ministry—In GALILEE 69 


spot and get a little rest” (for there were many 
people coming and going, and they could get no 
time even to eat). So they went away privately 
in the boat to a lonely spot’. However a number 
of people who saw them start and recognized 
them, got to the place before them by hurrying 
there on foot from all the towns. So when Jesus 
disembarked he saw a large crowd, and out of pity 
for them, as they were like sheep without a shep- 
herd, he welcomed them, spoke to them of the Reign 
of God and proceeded to teach them at length. 
And he cured those who needed to be healed. 

Then, as the day was far gone, his disciples 
came up to h m, saying, “It is a desert place and 
the day is now far gone; send them off to the 
farms and villages round about to buy some food 
for themselves.’’ He replied, “Give them some 
food, yourselves.”” They said, “Are we to go 
and buy ten pounds’ worth of food and give them 
that to eat?’ He said, ““How many loaves have 
you got? Go and see.’ When they found out 
they told him, “‘Five, and two fish.” Then he 
gave orders that they were to make all the people 
lie down in parties on the green grass; so they 
arranged themselves in groups of a hundred and of 
fifty. And he took the five loaves and the two fish, 
and looking up to heaven he blessed them, broke 
the loaves in pieces which he handed to the dis- 
ciples to set before them, and divided the two fish 
among them all. They all ate and had enough; 
besides, the fragments of bread and of fish which 
were picked up filled twelve baskets. (The number 
of men who ate the loaves was five thousand’.) 

Then he made the disciples at once embark in 
the boat and cross before him towards Bethsaida, 


¢Lk.: “to a town called Bethsaida”’ (9:10). °° Mt.: “five 
thousand apart from the women and children” (14: 21). 





Ek, 9:11 


Mt. 14:23 


MK. 6:47-56 
Mt. 14:23-36 


Mt. 19:28-31 


Mt. 14:33 


70 THE Story or JESUS [§ 38] 


while he dismissed the crowd!; and after saying 
goodbye to them he went up the hill by himself to 
pray. 

38. Walking on the Sea. 


Now when evening came the boat was [far out] 
in the middle of the sea, and he was on the land 
alone; but when he saw them buffeted as they 


rowed (for the wind was against them) he went to ~ 


them about the fourth watch of the night walking 
onthe sea. He meant to pass them, but when they 
saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a 


ghost and shrieked aloud—for they all saw him 


and were terrified. Then he spoke to them at 
once; “Courage,” he said, “‘it is I, have no fear.” 
Peter answered him, “‘ Lord, vf tt vs really you, order 
me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” 
Then Peter got out of the boat and walked over the 
water on his way to Jesus; but when he saw the 
strength of the wind he was afraid and began to sink. 
“Lord,” he shouted, “save me.’ Jesus at once 
stretched his hand out and caught him, saying, 
“How little you trust me! Why did you doubt?” 
And he got into the boat beside them, and the 
wind dropped. ‘They were utterly astounded, 
for they had not understood the lesson of the 
loaves; their minds were dull. And the men in the 
boat worshipped him, saying, “You are certainly 
God’s Son.” 

On crossing over they came to land at Genne- 
saret? and moored to the shore. And when they 





1 This is a strong expression. That Jesus had to “compel” 
his disciples to go and that he spent a long time alone in 
prayer suggests how critical was the situation arising out of 
the feeding of the thousands. ? Gennesaret was a fertile plain 
on the west side of the lake just south of Capharnahum. 
It is several miles south of Bethsaida, their starting point, 
indicating how far they had been blown out of their course. 


[§ 39] THe Earty Ministry—In GALILEE rial 


had disembarked, the people at once recognized 
Jesus; they hurried round all the district and 
proceeded to carry the sick on their pallets wher- 
ever they heard that he was; whatever village 
or town or hamlet he went to, they would lay 
their invalids in the marketplace, begging him to 
let them touch even the tassel of his robe—and 
all who touched him recovered. 


39. Controversy with Pharisees. 
Ceremonial Defilement. 


Now the Pharisees gathered to meet him, with 
some scribes who had come from Jerusalem. 
They noticed that some of his disciples ate their 
food with ‘‘common”’ (that is, unwashed) hands. 
(The Pharisees and all the Jews decline to eat 
till they wash their hands up to the wrist, in 
obedience to the tradition of the elders; they 
decline to eat what comes from the market till 
they have washed it; and they have a number of 
other traditions! to keep about washing cups and 
jugs and basins [and beds].) Then the Pharisees 
and scribes put this question to him, “Why do 
your disciples not follow the tradition’ of the 
elders? Why do they take their food with 
‘common’ hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah 
made a grand prophecy about you hypocrites— 
as it 1s written 2, 

This people honours me with their lips, 
but their heart is far away from me: 
vain is their worship of me, 
for the doctrines they teach are but human 
precepts. 
* Isaiah 29: 13. 
‘The Traditions were originally footnotes applying laws 


to specific situations. Gradually they came to equality with 
the law and later sometimes superseded the law itself. 








Mk. 7: 1-23 
Mt. 15:1-20 


Mt. 15:12-14 


12 Tue Story or JESUS [§ 39] 


You drop what God commands and hold to human 
tradition. Yes, forsooth,’’ he added, “‘you set 
aside what God commands, so as to maintain your 
own tradition. Thus, Moses said’, Honour your 
father and mother, and, He who curses his father 
or mother is to suffer death. But you say that if 
a man tells his father or mother, ‘This money 
might have been at your service, but it is Korban 
(that is, dedicated to God), he is exempt, so you © 
hold, from doing anything for his father or mother. 
That is repealing the word of God in the interests 
of the tradition which you keep up. And you do 
many things like that.” Then he called the crowd | 
to him again and said to them, “ Listen to me, all 
of you, and understand this:— 
nothing outside a man can defile him by 
entering him; 
it is what comes from him that defiles him. 
If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to 
this.” ‘ 

Then the disciples came up and said to him, “‘Do 
you know that the Pharisees have taken offence at 
what they hear you say?” He replied, “ Any plant 
that my heavenly Father has not planted will be 
rooted wp. Let them alone; they are blind quides 
of the blind, and wf one blind man leads another, 
both of them will fall into a pit.” 

Now when he went indoors away from the 
crowd, his disciples asked him the meaning of 
this parabolic saying. He said to them, “So you 
do not understand, either? Do you not see how 
nothing outside a man can defile him by entering 
him? It does not enter his heart but his belly 
and passes from that into the drain” (thus he 





2 Exodus 20: 12; Deuteronomy 5: 16; Exodus 21: 17; Leviticus 
20:9.  °& Cp. Lk. 6:39 (§ 24, h). | 


[§ 39) Tue Earty Ministry—In GALILEE 73 


pronounced all food clean). “‘ No,” he said, “it 
is what comes from a man, that is what defiles 
him. From within, from the heart of man, the 
designs of evil come: sexual vice, stealing, mur- 
der, adultery, lust, malice, deceit, sensuality, 
envying, slander, arrogance, recklessness, all these 
evils issue from within and they defilea man. A 
man vs not defiled by eating with hands unwashed!!”’ 





1 This is the final break with the Pharisees. Jesus here says 
that some parts of the ancient Jewish law were of only tem- 
porary value, that men must judge the law in the light of 
their experience and understanding. To those who were 
legalistic literalists this was the ultimate heresy. So definite 
is this break that Jesus is compelled to leave Galilee. 


Mt. 15:20 


Mk. 7: 24-30 
Mt. 15:21-28 


Mt. 15:22-25 


Mt. 15: 27-28 


Ii]. THE EXILE. THE SUPREME 
CRISIS OF THE MINISTRY. 


40. The Syro-Phoenician Woman. 


Leaving there, he went away to the territory 
of Tyre and Sidon!. He went into a house and 
wished no one to know of it, but he could not 
escape notice; a woman heard of him, whose 
daughter had an unclean spirit, and she came in 
and fell at his feet (the woman was a pagan’, of 
Syropheenician birth?) begging him to cast the 
daemon out of her daughter and wailed, ‘‘ Have 
pity. on me, Lord, O Son of David! My daughter is 
cruelly possessed by a daemon.” But he made no 
answer to her. Then his disciples came up and 
pressed him, saying, “Send her away, she rs wailing 
behind us.” He replied, “It was only to the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel that I was sent.” But 
she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, do 
help me.” He said to her, “Let the children be 
satisfied first of all; it is not fair to take the 
children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She 
answered him, “‘No, sir, but under their master’s 
table the dogs do pick up the children’s crumbs.”’ 
He said to her, “O woman, you have great faith. 
Well, go your way; your prayer is granted as you 
wish; the daemon has left your daughter, since you 
have said that.”’ So she went home and found the 
child lying in bed and the daemon gone from her. 





@Mt.: “a woman of Canaan”’ (15: 22). 


1 Forty to fifty miles to the northwest. 
2 Pagan in the sense of non-Jew. A Phoenician from Syria. 


74 


[§ 41] THe EXILE 75 


41. Many Healings. 


He left the territory of Tyre again and passed 
through Sidon to the sea of Galilee, crossing the 
territory of Decapolis!. And a deaf man who 
stammered was brought to him, with the request 
that he would lay his hand on him. So taking 
him aside from the crowd by himself, he put his 
fingers into the man’s ears, touched his tongue 
with saliva’, and looking up to heaven with a sigh 
he said to him, “Ephphatha’”’ (which means, 
Open). Then his ears were [at once] opened and 
his tongue freed from its fetter—he began to speak 
correctly. Jesus forbade them to tell anyone 
about it, but the more he forbade them the more 
eagerly they made it public; they were astounded 
in the extreme, saying, “How splendidly he has 
done everything! He actually makes the deaf 
hear and the dumb speak!’ 

And large crowds came to him bringing the lame, 
and the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and many 
others; they laid them at his feet, and he healed 
them. This made the crowd wonder, to see dumb 
people speaking, the lame walking, and the blind 
seeing. 


42. The Multitude Fed Again. 


In those days, when a large crowd had again 
gathered and when they had nothing to eat, he 
called his disciples and said to them, “I am sorry 
for the crowd; they have been three days with 
me now, and they have nothing to eat. If I send 





1 Jesus goes still further north, then returns in a roundabout 
way to the southeast coast of the Sea of Galilee. 

2A sign language by which Jesus gets into communication 
with this unfortunate man. 


Mk. 7:31-37 


Mt. 15:29-31 


Mt. 15:30-31 


Mk. 8: 1-10 
Mt. 15:32-39 


Mk. 8: 11-21 
Mt. 16:1-12 


Mt. 16:1 


76 Tue Story or JESUS [$ 43] 


them home without food they will faint on the 
road. Besides, some of them have come a long 
way.” His disciples replied, “‘Where can one get 
loaves to satisfy them in a desert spot like this?” 
He asked them, ‘“‘How many loaves have you 
got?” They said, ““Seven.’’ So he ordered the 
crowd to recline on the ground, and taking the 
seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave 
them to his disciples to serve out. They served 
them out to the crowd, and as they also had a few 
small fish, he blessed them too and told the disci- 
ples to serve them out as well. So the people ate 
and were satisfied, and they picked up seven 
baskets of fragments which were left over. (There 
were about four thousand of them?.) Then he 
sent them away, embarked at once in the boat 
with his disciples, and went to the district of 
Dalmanutha?'. 


43. The Pharisees Again. 


Now the Pharisees and Sadducees? came out 
and started to argue with him, asking him for a 
Sign from heaven, by way of tempting him. But 
he sighed in spirit and said, 





@Mt.: “four thousand apart from the children and the 
women” (15: 38). 
>’ Mt.: “to the territory of Magadan” (15: 39). 





1Dalmanutha is not mentioned elsewhere. Probably a 
village at the southern edge of the plain of Gennesaret. 

2 The Sadducees appear for the first time. They belonged to 
an aristocratic party, more interested in the affairs of state 
than in religion. They maintained that the books of Moses 
alone were sacred, that traditions were not binding, that 
there was no resurrection of the body and they rejected the 
idea of angels. They considered themselves to be the real 
conservatives in religion, accepting only the Law and not the 
“‘traditions’’ as authoritative. 


[§ 44] THE EXILE 77 


“Why does this generation demand a Sign? 
I tell you truly, no Sign shall be given this 
generation except the sign of Jonah*.” 
Then he left them, embarked again,: and went 
away to the opposite side. 

They had forgotten to bring any bread, and 
had only one loaf with them in the boat. So he 
cautioned them, “‘See and beware of the leaven 
of the Pharisees and Sadducees and the leaven of 
Herod.” “‘Leaven?” they argued to themselves, 
““we have no bread at all.’ He noted this and 
said to them, “Why do you argue you have no 
bread? Do you not see, do you not understand, 
even yet? Are you still dull of heart? 

You have eyes, do you not see? 
you have ears, do you not hear?®? 

Do you not remember how many baskets full of 
fragments you picked up when I broke the five 
loaves for the five thousand?” ‘They said, 
“Twelve.” “And how many basketfuls of frag- 
ments did you pick up when I broke the seven 
loaves for the four thousand?” ‘They said, 
“Seven.” “Do you not understand now?” he 
said. “‘Why do you not see that I was not speaking 
to you about bread? No, beware of the leaven of 
the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they realized 
that what he told them to beware of was not leaven 
but the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. 


44. A Blind Man Healed. 


Then they reached Bethsaida'. A blind man 
was brought to him with the request that he would 





* Jonah 3: 1-4. >’ Cp. Jeremiah 5: 21; Ezekiel 12: 2. 





1 Bethsaida is a village several miles north of Dalmanutha. 
Jesus is moving toward Capharnahum again. 


Mt. 16:4 


Mt. 16:6 


Mt. 16:11-12 


Mk. 8: 22-26 


Mk. 8:27-9:1 
Mt. 16:13-28 
Lk. 9:18-27 


Mt. 16:14 


Mt. 16:16-19 


78 THE STrory or JESUS [§ 45] 


touch him. So he took the blind man by the 
hand and led him outside the village; then, after 
spitting on his eyes, he laid his hands on him and 


asked him, “Do you see anything!?”” He began — 


to see and said, ““I can make out people, for I see 
them as large as trees moving.” At this he laid 
his hands on his eyes once more, and the man 
stared in front of him; he was quite restored and 
saw everything distinctly. And Jesus sent him 
home, saying, “Do not go even into the village.” 


45. Czesarea Philippi. 


Then Jesus and his disciples set off for the: 
villages of Caesarea Philippi?; and on the road he 
inquired of his disciples, ‘Who do people say I¢ 
am?” “John the Baptist,” they told him, 
“though some say Elijah*, others Jeremiah and 
others say you are one of the prophets*.”’ So he 
inquired of them, ““And who. do you say I am?” 
Peter replied, “‘ You are the Christ, the Son of the 
Lwing God.” Jesus answered him, “You are a 
blessed man, Simon Bar-jona, for i was my Father 
in heaven, not flesh and blood, that revealed this to 
you. Now I tell you, Peter 1s your name and on 
this rock I will build my church; the powers of 
Hades?® shall not succeed against vt. I will give you 
the keys of the Realm of heaven; 


@Mt.: “the Son of man” (16: 13). 


1 This healing is significant because of its progressive char- 
acter, as well as the use by Jesus of secondary means of healing. 
2 Cesarea Philippi was a city at the foot of Mt. Hermon, 
twenty-five miles north of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus had not 
been in this territory before. ° Elijah was expected 
to return before the “Realm of God” was ushered in. 
4’That is one like the ancient prophets whose greatness made 
them immortal. Evidently Jesus was given a place of high 
distinction in the thinking of his people. > Hades is 
suggested as the fortified metropolis of the powers of evil. 


[§ 45] Tur Exits ) 79 


whatever you prohibit on earth will be prohibited 
in heaven, 
and whatever you permit on earth will be per- 
mitted in heaven*.” 
Then he forbade them to tell anyone about him. 
And from that time he proceeded to teach them 
that the Son of man had to leave for Jerusalem and 
endure great suffering, to be rejected by the elders 
and the high priests and the scribes, to be killed 
and after three days to rise again; he spoke of this 
quite freely. Peter took him and began to 
reprove him for it. “God forbid, Lord,” he said, 
“this must not be.” But he turned on him and 
noticing his disciples reproved Peter, telling him, 
“Get behind me, you Satan! You are a hindrance 
to me. Your outlook is not God’s but man’s.” 
Then he called the crowd to him with his disciples 
and said to them, “If anyone wishes to follow me, 
let him deny himself, take up his cross day after 
day, and so follow me; 
for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, 
and whoever loses his life for my sake and the 
gospel’s will save it. 
What profit is it for a man to gain the whole world 
and to forfeit his soul? What could a man offer 
as an equivalent for his soul? 

Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in 
this disloyal and sinful generation, the Son of man 
will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory 
of his Father with the holy angels!. I tell you 
truly,” he said to them, “‘there are some of those 
standing here who will not taste death till they 
see the coming of God’s Reign with power?®.”’ 

* This paragraph is found in Mt. only. e Mt. till 
they see the Son of man coming himself to reign’’ (16: 28). 








1 Part of the popular conception concerning the coming of 
the Reign of God. 


Mt. 16:21 


Mt. 16:22 


Mt. 16:23 


Lk. 9:23 


Mk. 9: 2-13 
Mt 17:1-13 
Lk. 9: 28-36 
Lk. 9:29 
AT ye 


Lk. 9:30-33 


Mt. 17:6 
Dk. 9:34 


Mt. 17:6 


80 THe Story or JESUS [§ 46] 


46. The Transfiguration. 


Six days afterward Jesus took Peter, James, and 
John, and led them up a high hill by themselves 
alone; in their presence while he was praying he 
was transfigured, his face shone like the sun and 
his clothes glistened white, vivid white, such 
as no fuller on earth could bleach them. And 
Elijah along with Moses appeared to them in a 
vision of glory! and conversed with Jesus, and said 
he must go through with his death and departure at 
Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions had 
been overpowered with sleep, but on waking up they 


saw his giory and the two men who were standing — 


beside him. When they were parting from him, 
Peter addressed Jesus, saying, “Rabbi, it is a good 
thing we are here; let us put up three tents, one 
for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (for 
he did not know what to say, they were so terri- 
fied). Then while he was still speaking a cloud 
came overshadowing them. They were awestruck 
as they passed into the cloud and from the cloud a 
voice said, ““This is my Son, the Beloved, in him 
is my delight; listen to him?.” And suddenly 
looking round they saw ne one there except Jesus 
all alone beside them. As they went down the 
hill, he forbade them to tell anyone what they 
had seen, till such time as the Son of man rose 
from the dead. This order they obeyed, debating 
with themselves what ‘rising from the dead’ 
meant. So they put this question to him, “Why 
do the [Pharisees and] scribes say that Elijah has 





¢ Deuteronomy 18: 15; Isaiah 42: 1. 





1 Elijah and Moses were both closely associated with the 
Messiah in the thought of the time. They represent the 
great religious movements of the past joined with Jesus who 
makes their movements complete. 


—- - 


[§ 47] THe EXiLte | 81 


to come first??” He said to them, “Elijah does 
come first, to restore all things; but what is writ- 
ten about the Son of man as well? This, that he 
is to endure great suffering and be rejected!. As 
for Elijah, I tell you he has come already, and 
they have done to him whatever they pleased— 
as it is written of him.” Then the disciples realized 
he was speaking to them about John the Baptist. 


47. The Power of Prayer. 


When they reached the disciples® they saw a 
large crowd round them, and some scribes arguing 
with them. On seeing him the whole crowd was 
thunderstruck and ran to greet him. Jesus asked 
them, “What are you discussing with them?” 
A man from the crowd knelt and answered him, 
“Teacher, I brought my son, my only boy, to you; 
he has a dumb spirit °, and whenever it seizes him 
it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth 
and grinds his teeth. He is wasting away with it; 
so I told your disciples to cast it out, but they 
could not.’’ He answered them, “‘O faithless and 
perverse generation, how long must I still be with 
you? how long have I to bear with you? Bring 
him to me.” So they brought the boy to him, 
and when the spirit saw Jesus it at once convulsed 
the boy; he fell on the ground and rolled about 
foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked his father, 
“How long has he been like this?” “From child- 
hood,” he said; ‘‘it has thrown him into fire and 
water_many a time, to destroy him. If you can 
do anything, do help us, do have pity on us.” 





@ Malachi 4: 5-6. > Lk. says it was “on the next day” 
(9:37). ¢Mt.: “anepileptic” (17: 15). 





1 The current messianic conception did not suggest suffering 
and rejection as the Messiah’s lot. 


Mts 17213 


Mk. 9: 14-29 
Mt. 17:14-21 
Lk. 9:37-43 


Mt. eae 
Lk. 9:38 


Mili ele 


Mt. 17:18 
Lk. 9:43 


Mt. 17:20 


Mk. 9:30-32 
Mt.. 17:22-23 
Lk. 9:43-45 


Mf. 17: 24-27 


82 THe Story or JESUS [$ 48] 


Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! Anything can 
be done for one who believes.” At once the 
father of the boy cried out, “I do believe; help 
my unbelief.’”’ Now as Jesus saw that a crowd 
was rapidly gathering, he checked the unclean 
spirit. “‘ Deaf and dumb spirit,” he said, “leave 
him, I command you, and never enter him again.” 
And it did come out, after shrieking aloud and 
convulsing him violently. The child turned like 
a corpse, so that most people said, “He is dead”’; 
but, taking his hand, Jesus raised him and he got 
up and from that hour the boy was healed. And all 
were astounded at this grand display of God. When 


he went indoors his disciples asked him in private, ~ 


“Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, 
“Because you have so little faith. Nothing can 
make this kind come out but prayer and fasting.” 


48. Private Teaching. 


On leaving there they passed through Galilee. 
He did not want anyone to know of their journey, 
for he was teaching his disciples, telling them that 
the Son of man would be betrayed into the hands 
of men, that they would kill him, and that when 
he was killed he would rise again after three days. 
But they did not understand what he said, and 
they were afraid to ask him what he meant. 


49. Question of Paying the Temple-Tax. 


When they reached Capharnahum, the collec- 
tors of the temple-tax came and asked Peter, 
“Does your teacher not pay the temple-tax!?” 
He said, “‘ Yes.”’ But when he went indoors Jesus 
1 Every Jew from the age of twenty was expected to pay half 


a shekel a year to the treasury of the temple for temple 
upkeep. Exodus 30: 11-15. 


= 


[§ 50-a] THe EXILE | Pies 


spoke first: “Tell me, Simon,” he said, “from 
whom do earthly kings collect customs or taxes? 
Is it from their own people or from aliens?” 
“From aliens,” he said. Then Jesus said to him, 
“So their own people are exempt. However, not 
to give any offence to them, go to the sea, throw 
a hook in, and take the first fish you bring up. 
Open its mouth and you will find a five-shilling 
piece; take that and give it to them for me and 
for yourself.” 


50. Conversation with Disciples. 


a). True Greatness. 


And when he was indoors he asked them, ‘* What 
were you arguing about on the road?” They said 
nothing, for on the road they had been disputing 
about which of them was the greatest. So he sat 
down and called the twelve. “If anyone wants 
to be first,” he said to them, ““he must be last of all 
and the servant of all.” Then he took a little 
child, set it among them, and putting his arms 
round it said to them, 

“Whoever receives one of these little ones in 
my name receives me, 
and whoever receives me receives not me but 
him who sent me. 
For it ts the lowlvest of you all who vs great.” 

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw a man 
casting out daemons in your name; but he does 
not follow us, and so we stopped him.” Jesus 
said, “Do not stop him; no one who performs 
any miracle in my name will be ready to speak 
evil of me. He who is not against us is for us. 


¢ Cp. Mk. 10: 13-16 (§ 75) for another incident concerning 
children. 





Mk. 9:33-50 
Mt. 18:1-10 
Lk. 9:46-50 
LEeUied=2 


Lk. 9:48 


Mt. 18:6 
Mt. 18:7 


84 THe Story or JESUS [§ 50-a] 


Whoever gives you a cup of water because you 
belong to Christ, I tell you truly, he shall not miss 
his reward. 

And whoever is a hindrance to one of these little 
ones who believe, it were better for him to have a 
great millstone hung round his neck and be thrown 
into the deep seat. 

Woe to the world for hindrances! Hindrances 
have to come, but—woe to the man by ee the 
hindrance does come! 

If your hand is a hindrance to you, cut it off: 
better be maimed and get into Life, 
than keep your two hands and go to 


Gehenna?, to the fire that is never: 


quenched. 
If your foot is a hindrance to you, cut it off: 
better get into Life a cripple, 
than keep your two feet and be thrown 
into Gehenna. 
If your eye is a hindrance to you, tear it out: 
better get into God’s Realm *% with one eye, 
than keep your two eyes and be thrown 
into Gehenna ?, 
where their worm never dies and the fire 
is never put out®. 
Everyone has to be consecrated by the fire of 
the discipline. 
Salt is excellent?: 


but if salt is tasteless, how are you to_ 


restore its flavour °? 





@Mt.: “‘into Life” (18: 9). > Cp. Mt. 5: 29-30 (§ 24, c). 
¢ Isaiah 66: 24. 4 Cp. Leviticus 2: 13. 
¢ Cp. Mt. 5:13 (§ 24, b) and Lk. 14: 34-35 (§ 65). 





1A method of capital punishment sometimes used in Jesus’ 
day. * Gehenna—the place where Jerusalem’s garbage was 
burned. Frequently used to suggest the useless, the waste. 


; 


[§ 50-b] THe EXILE 185 


Let there be ‘salt between you’; 
be at peace with one another. 


See that you do not despise one of these little ones; 
for I tell you, their angels in heaven always look on 
the face of my Father in heaven. 


b). Miscellaneous Instructions. 


Tell me, if a man has a hundred sheep and one 
of them strays, will he not leave the ninety-nine 
sheep on the hills and go in search of the one that 
has strayed? And if he happens to find it, I tell 
you he rejoices over it more than over the ninety- 
nine that never went astray. So it is not the will 
of your Father in heaven that a single one of these 
little ones should be lost’. 

If your brother sins [against you], go and re- 
prove him, as between you and him alone. If he 
listens to you, then you have won your brother 
over; but if he will not listen, take one or two 
others along with you, so that every case may be 
decided on the evidence of two or of three wit- 
nesses'. If he refuses to listen to them, tell the 
church?; and if he refuses to listen to the church, 
treat him as a pagan or a taxgatherer. I tell you 
truly, 

Whatever you prohibit on earth will be pro- 
hibited in heaven, 

and whatever you permit on earth will be 
permitted in heaven. 

I tell you another thing: if two of you agree on 
earth about anything you pray for, it will be done 
for you by my Father in heaven. For where two 


@ Cp. Lk. 15: 4-7 (§ 66). 








1 This fulfils a requirement of Jewish law. Deuteronomy 19:15. 
2**Church” seems to mean the body of Christians living in 
any given community. 


Mt. 18:10 


Met. 18:11-20 
foe, ISS: 


Mt. 18: 21-35 
Lk. 17:4 


86 THE StToRY OF JESUS [$ 50-c] 


or three have gathered in my name, I am there 
among them.” 


c). Forgiveness. 


Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, 
how often is my brother to sin against me and be 


forgiven? Upto seven times?” Jesus said to him, — 


*““Seven times? I say, seventy times seven! That 
is why the Realm of heaven may be compared to 


a king who resolved to settle accounts with his. 


servants. When he began the settlement, a debtor 


was brought in who owed him three million | 


pounds; as he was unable to pay, his master 


ordered him to be sold, along with his wife and — 


children and all he had, in payment of the sum. 
So the servant fell down and prayed him, ‘Have 
patience with me, and I will pay you it all.” And 
out of pity for that servant his master released 
him and discharged his debt. But as that servant 
went away, he met one of his fellow-servants 
who owed him twenty pounds, and seizing him 
by the throat he said, ‘Pay your debt! So his 
fellow-servant fell down and implored him, saying, 
“Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 
But he refused; he went and had him thrown 
into prison, till he should pay the debt. Now 
when his fellow-servants saw what had happened 
they were greatly distressed, and they went and 
explained to their master all that had happened. 
Then his master summoned him and said, ‘ You 
scoundrel of a servant! I discharged all that debt 
for you, because you implored me. Ought you 
not to have had mercy on your fellow-servant, 
as I had on you?’ . And in hot anger his master 
handed him over to the torturers, till he should 
pay him all the debt. My Father will do the same 
to you unless you each forgive your brother from 
the heart.” 





IV. THE LATER MINISTRY — IN 
JUDAEA. 


51. Starting for Jerusalem. 


As the time for his assumption was now due, 
he set his face for the journey to Jerusalem. Then 
he left and went to the territory of Judaea over the 
Jordan. Crowds gathered to him again, and again 
he taught them as usual. He sent messengers in 
front of him. They went and entered a Samaritan 
village to make preparations for him!, but the 
people would not receive him? because his face 
was turned in the direction of Jerusalem*. So 
when the disciples James and John saw this, they 
said, “Lord, will you have us bid fire come down 
from heaven and consume them??? But he 
turned and checked them. Then they journeyed 
to another village. 


52. The Cost of Discipleship. | 


And as they journeyed along the road a man? 





said to him, “I will follow you anywhere.” Jesus 
said to him, 
2 Cp. II Kings 1: 10-12. >’ Mt.: “‘a scribe” (8: 19). 





1 Jesus is now travelling in a considerable company. Their 
unannounced arrival would cause embarrassment. 

* The traditional ill feeling between the Samaritans and the 
Jews was usually more manifest at the times of Jewish pil- 
grimages to Jerusalem festivals. 

’’'The Samaritans would have nothing to do with a messianic 
aspirant who designed to pass by their holy Mt. Gerizim 
and go instead to Jerusalem. 


87 


Lk. 9: 51-56 
Mt. 19: 1-2 
Mk. 10: 1 
Mk. 10:1 


Lk. 9: 57-62 
Mt. 8:19-22 


Lk. 10: 1-24 
Mt. 11: 20-27 


88 THE Story OF JESUS [§ 53] 


“The foxes have their holes, 
the wild birds have their nests, 
but the Son of man has nowhere to lay 
his head.”’ 


He said to another man, “Follow me”’; but he 


said, ““Let me go and bury my father first of all.’ 


Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their 


own dead; you go and spread the news of the © 
Reign of God.” Another man also said to him, | 


“T will follow you, Lord. But let me first say 
good-bye to my people at home.” Jesus said to 
him, “‘ No one is any use to the Reign of God who 


puts his hand to the plough and then looks behind. 


him.” 


53. The Mission of the Seventy-. 


After that the Lord commissioned other seventy 
disciples, sending them in front of him two by 
two to every town and place. that he intended to 
visit himself. He said to them, “‘The harvest is 
rich, but the labourers are few; so pray the Lord 
of the harvest to send labourers to gather his 
harvest. Go your way; I am sending you out 
like lambs among wolves. Carry no purse, no 
wallet, no sandals. Do not stop to salute any- 
body on the road. Whatever house you enter, 
first say, “Peace be to this household! Then, if 
there is a soul there breathing peace, your peace 
will rest on him; otherwise it will come back to 
you. Stay at the same house, eating and drinking 
what the people provide (for the workman de- 
serves his wages); you are not to shift from one 
house to another. Wherever you are received on 
entering any town, eat what is provided for you, 


2Cp. ‘The Mission of the Twelve,’ Mt. 9: 35-11: 1 ete. 
(§ 35). 


[§ 53] Tae Later Ministry—In Jupara | 89 


heal those in the town who are ill, and tell them, 
“The Reign of God is nearly on you.’ But wher- 
ever you are not received on entering any town, 
go out into the streets of the town and cry, ‘The 
very dust of your town that clings to us we wipe 
off from our feet as a protest. But mark this, the 
Reign of God is near!’ I tell you, on the great Day 
it will be more bearable for Sodom? than for that 
town. Woe to you, Khorazin! woe to you, Beth- 
saida! Had the miracles performed in you been 
performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would long 
ago have been sitting penitent in sackcloth and 
ashes. But it will be more bearable for Tyre and 
Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, O 
Capharnahum! Exalted to heaven? No, you 
will sink to Hades?! 
He who listens to you listens to me, 
he who rejects you rejects me, 
and he who rejects me rejects him who sent 
me.” 

The seventy came back with joy. “Lord,” 
they said, “the very daemons obey us in your 
name.” He said to them, “‘ Yes, I watched Satan 
fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. I have 
indeed given you the power of treading on serpents 
and scorpions and of trampling down all the power 
of the Enemy; nothing shall injure you. Only, 

do not rejoice because the spirits obey you: 

rejoice because your names are enrolled in 
heaven.” 

He thrilled with joy at that hour in the holy 

Spirit, saying, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of 

heaven and earth, for concealing this from the 

wise and learned and revealing it to the simple- 





* Genesis 19: 24. ’ Cp. Isaiah 14: 13-15. 


Lk. 10: 25-37 


90 THE Story orf JESUS [$ 54] 


minded; yes, Father, I praise thee that such was 
thy chosen purpose.” Then turning to the 
disciples he said, 
*“‘All this has been handed over to me by my 
Father: 
and no one knows who the Son is except 
the Father, 
or who the Father is except the Son, : 
and he to whom the Son chooses to reveal | 
him.” : 
Then turning to the disciples he said privately, 
‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 
For I tell you many prophets and kings have’ 
desired to see what you see, 
but they have not seen it; 
and to hear what you hear, 
but they have not heard it*.” 


q 


: 


54. The Good Samaritan. 


Now a jurist got up to tempt him. ‘Teacher,’ 
he said, “‘what am I to do to inherit life eternal?” 
He said to him, “‘What is written in the law? 
What do you read there?” He replied, “‘ You 
must love the Lord your God with your whole 
heart, with your whole soul, with your whole 
strength, and with your whole mind. Also your 
neighbour as yourself’.”” “A right answer!’ 
said Jesus; “‘do that and you will live’.’? Anxious 
to make an excuse for himself, however, he said 
to Jesus, “But who is my neighbour?” Jesus 
rejoined, “A man going down from Jerusalem to 
Jericho! fell among robbers who stripped and 


@ Cp. Mt. 13: 16-17 (§ 31, a). > Deuteronomy 6: 5; 
Leviticus 19: 18. ¢ Leviticus 18: 5. 


1 This journey was proverbial for its difficulty and danger. 
The road from Jerusalem to Jericho makes a continuous steep 


i§ 55, THe Larter Ministry—In JupAba 91 


belaboured him and then went off leaving him 
half-dead. Now it so chanced that a priest was 
going down the same road, but on seeing him he 
went past on the opposite side. So did a Levite! 
who came to the spot; he looked at him but 
passed on the opposite side. However a Samaritan 
traveller? came. to where he was and felt pity 
when he saw him; he went to him, bound his 
wounds up, pouring oil and wine into them, 
mounted him on his own steed, took him to an 
inn, and attended to him. Next morning he took 
out a couple of shillings and gave them to the inn- 
keeper, saying ‘Attend to him, and if you are put 
to any extra expense I will refund you on my way 
back.’ Which of these three men, in your opinion, 
proved a neighbour to the man who fell among 
the robbers?”’ He said, ““The man who took pity 
on him.’ Jesus said to him, “Then go and do 
the same.” 


55. Mary and Martha. 


In the course of their journey he entered a 
certain village, and a woman called Martha wel- 
comed him to her house. She had a sister called 
Mary, who seated herself at the feet of the Lord 
to listen to his talk. Now Martha was so busy 





decline through desolate uninhabited country. Much of the 
way leads between high walls cn either side. It was a favorite 
resort of highway robbers. Jesus made the journey in the 
reverse direction just before the Triumphal Entry into Jeru- 
salem ($§ 81-83). 

1The Levites were temple guards. The name sometimes 
includes the temple singers and servants. 

2 The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. They called 
the Samaritans hard names, would not eat with them, would 
not admit them to a Jewish court of law, considered the touch 
of a Samaritan as pollution and did not travel through Samaria 
unless compelled by haste to do so. There was a very ancient 
grudge between the Jews and Samaritans. 


Lk. 10: 38-42 


92 Tue Story or JESUS [§ 56] _ 


attending to them that she grew worried; she — 
came up and said, “Lord, is it all one to you that 
my sister has left me to do all the work alone? 
Come, tell her to lend me a hand.” The Lord 
answered her, “Martha, Martha, Mary has chosen 
the best dish, and she is not to be dragged away 


from it.” 
56. Prayer’. 
Lk. 11:1-13, He was praying at a certain place, and when he 
wan28 stopped one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, 


teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 
He said to them, 
“When you pray, say, Father, 
thy name be revered, 
thy Reign begin; 
give us our bread for the morrow day by 
day, 
and forgive us our sins 
for we do forgive everyone who has 
offended us; 

and lead us not into temptation.” 
And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a 
friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to 
him, ‘ Friend, let me have three loaves; fora friend 
of mine travelling has come to my house and [ 
have nothing to set before him.’ And suppose he 
answers from the inside, ‘Don’t bother me; the 
door is locked by this time, and my children are 
in bed with me. I can’t get up and give you any- 
thing.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and 
give you anything because you are a friend of his, 
he will at least rise and give you whatever you 
want, because you persist. So I tell you, 





4 Cp. Mt. 6: 9-13 and Mt. 7: 7-11 (§ 24, e, i). 


In JupaEa 93 





[§ 57] Tue Later MInNIstry 


ask and the gift will be yours, 
seek and you will find, 
knock and the door will open to you; 
for everyone who asks receives, 
the seeker finds, 
the door is opened to anyone who knocks. 
What father among you, if asked by his son 
for a loaf, will hand him a stone? 
Or, if asked for a fish, will hand him a ser- 
pent instead of a fish? 
Or, if asked for an egg, will he hand him a 
scorpion? 
Well, if for all your evil you know to give 
your children what is good, 
how much more will your Father give the 
holy Spirit from heaven to those who 
ask him?” 

While he was saying this, a woman shouted to 
him out of the crowd, “ Blessed is the womb that 
bore you, and the breasts you sucked!’ But he 
said, “Blessed rather are those who hear and who 
observe the word of God!’ . 


57. Jesus’ Estimate of the Pharisees’. 


When he finished speaking, a Pharisee asked 
him to take a meal in his house; so he went in 
and lay down at table. The Pharisee was aston- 
ished to see that he had not washed before the 
meal, but the Lord said to him, 


“You Pharisees do clean the outside of the cup 
and the plate, 
but your inner life is filled with rapacity 
and malice. 
Foolish men! did not He who made the out- 
side make the inside of things too? 


2 Cp. Mt. 23: 4-7, 13, 23-36 (§ 90). 





Lk. 11: 37-54 


94 THe STorRY OF JESUS [§ 57] 


Better cleanse what is within; then nothing 
will be unclean for you. 
But woe to you Pharisees! 
you tithe mint and rue and every vege- 
table’, 
but justice and the love of God you disre- 
gard; 
these latter you ought to have practised— 
without omitting the former. 
Woe to you Pharisees! | 
you love the front bench in the synagogues 
and salutations in the marketplaces. 
Woe to you! 
you are like unsuspected tombs}; 
men walk over them unawares.” 


One of the jurists said to him, “‘ Teacher, when you 
say this you are insulting us as well?.”’ He said, 
“And woe to you jurists! you load men with 
irksome burdens, 
and you will not put a single finger to 
their burdens. 

Woe to you! you build tombs for the 
prophets whom your own fathers 
killed : 

thus you testify and consent to what 
your fathers did, 
for they killed and you build. 


This is why the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send 
them prophets and apostles, some they will kill 
and some they will persecute’; it was that the 
blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation 


@ Leviticus 27: 30; Micah 6: 8. 


1 Any contact with a tomb brought pollution. So tombs 
were usually whitewashed that men might avoid them. 

2 The jurists were men of more culture and distinction. They 
naturally resented Jesus’ criticism and were bound to try 
their level best to discredit him. 








[§ 58] Tue Later Ministry—In Jupana 95 


of the world might be charged upon this genera- 
tion, from the blood of Abel down to the blood of 
-Zechariah* who was slain between the altar and 
the House of God—yes, I tell you, it will all be 
charged upon this generation. 
Woe to you jurists! you have taken the key 
that unlocks the door of knowledge; 
you have not entered yourselves, 
and you have stopped those who were en- 
tering.” 

After he had gone away, the scribes and Pharisees 
commenced to follow him up closely and cross- 
question him on many points, lying in ambush 
to catch a word from his lips. 


58. Possessions?. 


A man out-of the crowd said to him, “‘ Teacher, 
tell my brother to give me my share of our inherit- 
ance’’; but he said to him, “‘Man, who made me 
a judge or arbitrator over your affairs?”’ Then he 
said to them, “See and keep clear of covetousness 
in every shape and form, for a man’s life is not 
part of his possessions because he has ample 
wealth.” And he told them a parable. “A rich 
man’s estate bore heavy crops. So he debated, 
‘What am I to do? I have no room to store my 
crops.’ And he said, ‘This is what I willdo. I will 
pull down my granaries and build larger ones, 
where [ can store all my produce and my goods. 
And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample 
stores laid up for many a year; take your ease, 
eat, drink and be merry.”’’ But God said to him, 
‘Foolish man, this very night your soul is wanted; 
and who will get all you have prepared?’ So fares 





2 Cp. Genesis 4: 8: II Chronicles 24: 20-21. 
> Cp. Mt. 6: 19-34 (§ 24, g). 


ee 


Lk. 12:13-34 


96 Tue Story or JESUS [§ 58] 


the man who lays up treasure for himself instead 
of gaining the riches of God.” To his disciples he 
said, ‘“Therefore I tell you, 
do not trouble about what you are to eat in 
life, 
nor about what you are to put on your 
body; 
life is something more than food, 
and the body is something more than - 
clothes. 
Look at the crows! they neither sow nor reap, 
no storehouse or granary have they, 
and yet God feeds them. 
How much more are you worth than birds? 
Which of you can add an ell to his height by 
troubling about it? 
and if you cannot manage even this, why 
trouble over other things? 
Look how the lilies neither spin nor weave: 
and yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all his 
grandeur was never robed like one of 
them. 
Now if God so clothes grass which blooms to-day 
in the field and is thrown to-morrow into the fur- 
nace, will he not much more clothe you!? O men, 
how little you trust him! So do not seek food and 
drink and be worried; pagans make food and 
drink their aim in life, but your Father knows 
quite well you need that; only seek his Realm, 
and it will be yours over and above. Fear not, 
you little flock, for your Father is delighted to give 
you the Realm. 
Sell what you possess and give it away in 
alms, 





1 In the absence of wood it was usual to use dry grass to heat 
ovens. This is a current phrase to suggest evanescence. 


[§ 59] Tue Later Ministry—In JupAEA 97 


make purses for yourselves that never wear 
out: 
get treasure in heaven that never fails, 
that no thief can get at, no moth destroy. 
For where your treasure lies, 
your heart will lie there too. 


59. Preparedness¢. 


Keep your loins girt' and your lamps lit, and be 
like men who are expecting their lord and master 
on his return from a marriage-banquet, so as to 
open the door for him at once when he comes and 
knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the 
lord and master finds awake when he comes! I 
tell you truly, he will gird himself, make them 
recline at table, and come forward to wait on them. 
Whether he comes in the second or the third watch 
of the night and finds them thus alert, blessed are 
they! Be sure that if the householder had known 
at what hour the thief was coming, he would not 
have allowed his house to be broken into. So be 
ready yourselves, for the Son of man is coming at 
an hour you do not expect.”’ Peter said, “Lord, 
are you telling this parable for us, or is it for all 
and sundry?” The Lord said, “‘ Well, where is the 
trusty, thoughtful steward whom the lord and 
master will set over his establishment to give out 
supplies at the proper time? Blessed is that serv- 
ant if his lord and master finds him so doing when 
he arrives! I tell you plainly, he will set him 
over all his property. But if that servant says to 
himself, ‘My lord and master is long of arriving,’ 


4 Cp. Mt. 24: 43-51 (§ 92, f). 


1When loose flowing robes were worn it was impossible to 
engage in active service until they had been drawn in at the 
waist by a belt. 








Lk. 12:35-56 


Lk. 13:1-9 


98 THe Story or JESUS [$ 60] 


and if he starts to beat the menservants and 
maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, 
that servant’s lord and master will arrive on a day 
when he does not expect him and at an hour which 
he does not know; he will cut him in two and 
assign him the fate of unbelievers}. 
The servant who knew his lord and master’s 
orders and did not prepare for them, 
will receive many lashes; 
whereas he who was ignorant and did what 
deserves a beating, 
will receive few lashes. 
He who has much given him 
will have much required from him, 
and he who has much entrusted to him 
will have all the more demanded of him.” 
And to the crowds he said, 
““When you see a cloud rise in the west, 
you say, ‘There is a shower coming,’ 
and so it is: 
when you feel the south wind blow, 
you say, ‘There will be heat,’ 
and so it is’. 
You hypocrites, you know how to decipher 
the look of earth and sky; 
how is it you cannot decipher the meaning 
of this era?”’ 


60. Need for Repentance. 


It was at this time that some people came to tell 
him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had 





1The slave was owned body and soul. His master could 
punish him in this way without interference from the law. 

2 A cloud from the Mediterranean brings rain. A wind from 
the south blows from the hot desert country and brings in- 
tense heat. 


[§ 61; THe Later Ministry—In Jupara ' 99 


mingled with their sacrifices. But he replied to 
them, 


“Do you think, because they suffered this, 
that these Galileans were worse sinners 
than the rest of the Galileans!? 

I tell you, no; 
unless you repent you will all perish as 
they did. 
Or those eighteen men killed by the fall of the 
tower at Siloam ?— 
Do you think they were worse offenders than 
the rest of the residents in Jerusalem? 
I tell you, no; 
unless you repent you will all perish as 
they did.” 
And he told this parable. “A man had a fig tree 
planted in his vineyard; he came in search of 
fruit on it but he found none. So he said to the 
vinedresser, ‘Here have I come for three years in 
search of fruit on this fig tree without finding any; 
cut it down, why should it take up space?’ But 
the man replied, ‘Leave it for this year, sir, till 
I dig round about it and put in manure. Then it 
may bear fruit next year. If not, you can have it 
cut down.’ ” 


61. Healing on the Sabbath. 


When he was teaching in one of the synagogues 
on the sabbath, there was a woman who for 
eighteen years had suffered weakness from an evil 
spirit; indeed she was bent double and quite 
unable to raise herself. Jesus noticed her and 





1 Several times during Pilate’s governorship his soldiers had 
put down disturbances by the ruthless slaughter of Jews even 
in the temple itself. Some evidently thought these deaths 
were brought about by God in punishment of unusual sin. 


Lk. 13210-17 


Lk. 13:22-33 
Mt. 8: 11-12 


100 Tue Story or JESUS [§ 62] 


: 


: 


called to her, “Woman, you are released from your 


weakness.” He laid his hands on her, and in- 
stantly she became erect and glorified God. 


But the president of the synagogue was annoyed 
at Jesus healing on the sabbath*, and he said to 
the crowd, “There are six days for work to be 
done; come during them to get healed, instead of 
on the sabbath.” The Lord replied to him, ‘‘ You 
hypocrites, does not each of you untether his ox or 


ass from the stall on the sabbath and lead it.away ~ 


to drink? And this woman, a daughter of Abra- 
ham, bound by Satan for all these eighteen years, 
was she not to be freed from her bondage on the 


sabbath?” As he said this, all his opponents were . 


put to shame, but all the crowd rejoiced over all 
his splendid doings. 


62. ‘‘The Last Shall be First’’>. 


On he went, teaching from one town and village 
to another, as he made his way to Jerusalem. A 
man said to him, “is. it only a few, sir, who are 
saved?” So he said to them, “Strive to get in 
through the narrow door, for [ tell you many will 
try to get in and not be able, once the master of 
the House has got up and closed the door. You 
may stand outside and knock at the door, crying 
‘Lord, open for us,’ but he will answer you, ‘I 
do not know where you come from.’ You will 
then proceed to say, ‘But we ate and drank in 
your presence, and you taught in our streets!’ 
‘I tell you,’ he will say, ‘I do not know where you 
come from; begone every one of you, you evil- 
doers’.” There you will wail and gnash your 
teeth, to see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the 





@ Exodus 20: 8-11; Deuteronomy 5: 12-15. ° Cp. Mt. 7: 13- 
14, 22-23 (§ 24, i, j); 20:16 (§ 77). ° Cp. Psalm 6:8. 


[§ 63] Tue Later Ministry—In Jupsaea 101 


prophets inside the Realm of God and yourselves 
thrown out. Yes, and people will come from east 
and west and north and south to their places at 
the feast within the Realm of God. 

Some are last who will be first, 

and some are first who will be last.”’ 

Just then some Pharisees came up to tell him, 
“Get away from here, for Herod intends to kill 
you.” “Go and tell that fox,” he replied, “I cast 
out daemons and perform cures to-day and to- 
morrow, and on the third day I complete my task! 
But I must journey on, to-day, to-morrow, and 
the next day; it would never do for a prophet to 
perish except in Jerusaiem!”’ 


63. Another Sabbath Dispute. 


Now when he entered the house of a ruler who 
belonged to the Pharisees to take a meal, they 
watched him closely. In front of him there was 
a man who had dropsy; so Jesus asked the jurists 
and Pharisees, “Is it right to heal on the sabbath 
or not?” They held their peace. Then Jesus 
took hold of the man and cured him and sent him 
off. ‘‘Which of you,”’ he said to them, “when an 
ass or an ox has fallen into a well, will not pull him 
out at once upon the sabbath day??”’ This they 
could not dispute. | 


64. Two Parables About Feasts. 


He also told a parable to the guests, when he 
observed how they picked out the best places. 
“When anyone invites you to a marriage-ban- 
quet,” he said, “never lie down in the best place, 


@ Cp. Mt. 12: 11-12 (§ 21, e). 





Lk. 14:1-6 


Lk. 14: 7-24 


102 Tue Story or JESUS [§ 64] 


in case a more distinguished guest than yourself 
has been invited; then the host will tell you, 
‘Make room for him,’ and you will proceed in 
shame to take the lowest place. No, when you 
are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, so 
that when your host comes in he will tell you, 
‘Move higher up, my friend.’ Then you will be 
honoured before your fellow guests. 
For everyone who uplifts himself will be 
humbled, 
and he who humbles himself will be up- 
lifted.” 
He also said to his host, ““When you give a dinner | 
or supper, do not ask your friends or your brothers 
or your relatives or your rich neighbours, in case 
they invite you back again and you get repaid. 
No, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the 
maimed, the lame, and the blind. Then you will 
be blessed; for as they have no means of repaying 
you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the 
just.” Hearing this, one of his fellow guests said 
to him, “‘ Blessed is he who feasts in the Realm of 
God!” 

Jesus said to him’, “There was a man who was 
giving a large supper, to which he had invited a 
number of guests. At the hour for supper he sent 
his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, things are 
all ready.’ But they all alike proceeded to decline. 
The first said to him, ‘I have bought a farm and 
I am obliged to go and look at it. Pray consider 
me excused.’ The second said, ‘I have bought 
five pair of oxen and I am going to try them. 
Pray consider me excused.’ Another said, ‘I have 
married a wife; that is why I cannot come.’ The 
servant went and reported this to his master. 





@Cp. Mt. 22: 1-14 (§ 87, b) for a somewhat similar parable. 


(§ 65] Tue Later Ministry—In Jupara 103 


Then the master of the house was enraged, and 
said to his servant, ‘Quick, go out to the streets 
and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the 
maimed, the blind, and the lame.’ When the 
servant announced, ‘ Your order has been carried 
out sir, but there is still room,’ the master said to 
the servant, “Go out to the roads and hedges and 
make people come in, to fill up my house. For 
I tell you that not one of those who were invited 
shall taste my supper.’ ”’ 


65. Counting the Cost. 


There were large crowds travelling with him; 
so he turned and said to them, 

“Tf anyone comes to me and does not hate his 
father and mother and wife and children and 
brothers and sisters, aye and his own life, 

he cannot be a disciple of mine; 
whoever does not carry his own cross and 
come after me, 
he cannot be a disciple of mine’. 
For which of you wants to build a tower and does 
not first sit down to calculate the expense, to see 
if he has enough money to complete it?—in case, 
after he has laid the foundation and then is 
unable to finish the building, all the spectators 
start to make fun of him, saying, “This fellow 
started to build but he could not finish it.’ Or 
what king sets out to fight against another king 
without first sitting down to deliberate whether 
with ten thousand men he can encounter the king 
who is attacking him with twenty thousand? If 
he cannot, when the other is still at a distance he 
will send an embassy to do homage to him. 


“Cp. Mt. 10: 37-38 (§ 35, c). 





Lk. 14:25-35 


Lk. 15: 1-32 


104 THe Story or JESUS [§ 66] 


So with everyone of you who will not part 
with all his goods— 
he cannot be a disciple of mine. 

Salt is excellent indeed: but if salt becomes 
insipid, what will restore its flavour? It is no 
use for either soil or dunghill, it is flung out®. He 
who has an ear let him listen to this.” 


66. The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin, The 
Lost Son. 


Now the taxgatherers and sinners were all 
approaching him to listen to him, but the Phari- 
sees and the scribes complained, “He welcomes’ 
sinners and eats along with them!’ So he told 
them this parable®, “Which of you with a hun- 
dred sheep, if he loses one, does not leave the 
ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost 
one till he finds it? When he finds it he puts 
it on his shoulders with joy, and when he gets 
home he gathers his friends and neighbours: 
“Rejoice with me,’ he says to them, ‘for I have 
found the sheep [ lost.’ So, I tell you, there will be 
joy in heaven over a single sinner who repents, 
more than over ninety-nine good people who do 
not need to repent. 

Or again, suppose a woman has ten shillings. 
If she loses one of them, does she not light a lamp 
and scour the house and search carefully till she 
finds it? And when she finds it she gathers her 
women-friends and neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice 
with me, for I have found the shilling I lost.’ So, 
I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels 
of God over a single sinner who repents.”’ 

He also said: “‘There was a man who had two 





“Cp. Mt. 5: 13 (§ 24, b). ’ Cp. Mt. 18: 12-14 (§ 50, b). 


[§ 66] THe Later Ministry—In JuparEa 105 


sons, and the younger said to his father, ‘Father, 
give me the share of the property that falls to me.’ 
So he divided his meansamong them. Not many 
days later, the younger son sold off everything 
and went abroad to a distant land, where he 
squandered his means in loose living. After he 
had spent his all, a severe famine set in throughout 
that land, and he began to feel in want; so he 
went and attached himself to a citizen of that land, 
who sent him to his fields to feed swine. And he 
was fain to-fill his belly with the pods the swine 
were eating; no one gave him anything. But 
when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many 
hired men of my father have more than enough 
to eat, and here am I perishing of hunger! I will 
be up and off to my father, and I will say to him, 
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before 
you; I don’t deserve to be called your son any 
more; only make me like one of your hired men.” ’ 
So he got up and went off to his father. But when 
he was still far away his father saw him and felt 
pity for him and ran to fall upon his neck and kiss 
him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned 
against heaven and before you; I don’t deserve to 
be called your son any more.’ But the father said 
to his servants, “Quick, bring the best robe and 
put it on him, give him a ring for his hand and 
sandals for his feet, and bring the fatted calf, kill 
it, and let us eat and be merry; for my son here 
was dead and he has come to life, he was lost and 
he is found.’ So they began to make merry. Now 
his elder son was out in the field, and as he came 
near the house he heard music and dancing; so, 
summoning one of the servants, he asked what 
this meant. The servant told him, ‘ Your brother 
has arrived, and your father has killed the fatted 
calf because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 


Lk. 16: 1-15 


106 THe Srory oF JESUS [§ 67] 


This angered him, and he would not go in. His 
father came out and tried to appease him, but he. 
replied, ‘Look at all the years I have been serving 
you! I have never neglected any of your orders, 
and yet you have never given me so much as a 
kid, to let me make merry with my friends. But 
as soon as this son of yours arrives, after having 
wasted your means with harlots, you kill the fatted 
calf for him!’ The father said to him, ‘My son, 
you and I are always together, all I have is yours. 
We could not but make merry and rejoice, for 
your brother here was dead and has come to life | 
again, he was lost but he has been found.’ ” 


67. The Dishonest Factor. 


He also said to the disciples: “‘There was a rich 
man who had a factor, and this factor, he found, 
was accused of misapplying his property. So he 
summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear 
about you? Hand in your accounts; you cannot 
be factor any longer.’ The factor said to himself, 
“What am I to do now that my master is taking 
the factorship away from me? [I am too weak 
to dig, I am ashamed to beg. Ah, I know what 
I will do, so that people will weleome me to their 
houses when | am deposed from the factorship.’ 
So he summoned every single one of his master’s 
debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much are you 
owing to my master?’ ‘A hundred barrels of oil,’ 
he said. The factor told him, ‘Here is your bill; 
sit down at once and enter fifty barrels.’ Then 
he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ 
‘A hundred quarters of wheat,’ he said. “Here 
is your bill,’ said the factor, ‘just enter eighty.’ 
Well, the master praised the dishonest factor for 
looking ahead; for the children of this world look 


(§ 68] Tur Later Ministry—In Jupara 107 
further ahead in dealing with their own generation 
than the children of Light. And I tell you, use 
mammon, dishonest as it is, to make friends for 
yourselves, so that when you die they may wel- 
come you to the eternal abodes. 
He who is faithful with a trifle is also faithful 
with a large trust, 
and he who is dishonest with a trifle is also 
dishonest with a large trust. 
So if you are not faithful with dishonest mam- 
mon, 
how can you ever be trusted with true 
Riches? 
And if you are not faithful with what belongs 
~ to another, 
how can you ever be given what is your 
own? 
No servant can serve two masters: 
either he will hate the one and love the 
other, 
or else he will stand by the one and despise 
the other— 
you cannot serve both God and Mammon?.” 
Now the Pharisees who were fond of money 
heard all this, and they sneered at him. So he 
told them, “You are the people who get men to 
think you are good, but God knows what your 
hearts are! What is lofty in the view of man is 
loathsome in the eyes of God.” 


68. The Rich Man and Lazarus. 


“There was a rich man, clad in purple and fine 
linen, who lived sumptuously every day. Outside 
his door lay a poor man called Lazarus; he was a 





* Cp. Mt. 6: 24 (§ 24, g). 


Lk. 16:19-32. 


Lk. 17: 7-10 


108 Tue Story or JESUS [$ 69] 


mass of ulcers, and fain to eat up the crumbs that 
fell from the rich man’s table. (The very dogs 
used to come and lick his ulcers.) Now it hap- 
pened that the poor man died, and he was carried 


by the angels to Abraham’s bosom!. The rich — 


man died too, and was buried. And as he was 
being tortured in Hades? he raised his eyes and 


saw Abraham far away with Lazarus in his bosom; | 


so he called out, ‘Father Abraham, take pity on | 


me, send Lazarus to dip his finger-tip in water and 


cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in these — 


flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Remember, my son, 
you got all the bliss when you were alive, just as 
Lazarus got the ills of life; he is in comfort now, 
and you are in anguish. Besides all that, a great 
gulf yawns between us and you, to keep back those 
who want to cross from us to you and also those 
who want to pass from you to us.’ Then he said, 
“Well, father, I beg you to send him to my 
father’s house, for I have five brothers; let him 
bear testimony to them, that they may not come 
to this place of torture as well.’ “They have got 
Moses and the prophets,’ said Abraham, ‘they 
can listen to them.’ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he 
said, ‘but if someone only goes to them from the 
dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they 
will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they 
will not be convinced, not even if one rose from 
the dead.’ ” 


69. A Parable On Duty. 


To his disciples he said, *‘ Which of you, with 
a servant out ploughing or shepherding, will say 
to him when he comes in from the field, ‘Come 
1“’This expression is used as a picture for the banquet of 


Paradise.’ 2? Hades is here the intermediate condition of the 
dead between death and the day of final judgment. 


| {§ 70] Tue Later Ministry—In JuDARA ~ 109 


at once and take your place at table’? Will the 
man not rather say to him, ‘Get something ready 
for my supper; gird yourself and wait on me till 
I eat and drink; then you can eat and drink 
yourself’? Does he thank the servant for doing 
his bidding? Well, it is the same with you; when 
you have done all you are bidden, say, ‘We are 
but servants; we have only done our duty.’ ”’ 


70. Ten Lepers Healed. 


Now it happened in the course of his journey to Lk. 17:11-19 
Jerusalem that he passed between Samaria and 
Galilee. On entering one village he was met 
by ten lepers who stood at a distance and lifted 
up their voice, saying, “Jesus, master, have pity 
on us.” Noticing them he said, “Go and show 
yourselves to the priests*.’’ And as they went 
away they were cleansed. Now one of them 
turned back when he saw he was cured, glorifying 
God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at 
the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was 
a Samaritan. So Jesus said, “Were all the ten 
not cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was 
there no one to return and give glory to God 
except this foreigner?’ And he said to him, 
“Get up and go, your faith has made you well.” 


71. The Coming of the Reign’. 


On being asked by the Pharisees when the Reign Lk. 17:20-37 
of God was coming, he answered them, “The 
Reign of God is not coming as you hope to catch 
sight of it; no one will say, ‘Here it is’ or ‘There 
it is,’ for the Reign of God is now in your midst’.”’ 
@ Leviticus 13: 49; 14: 1-3. ’ Cp. Mt. 24: 26-28, 37-41 
(§ 92, e). ¢ Or, “the Reign of God is within you.” 





110 THE Story or JESUS [§ 71] 


To his disciples he said, “There will come days 
when you will long and long in vain to have even 
one day of the Son of man!. Men will say, ‘See, 
here he is!’ ‘See, there he is!’ but do not go out 
or run after them, 

for like lightning that flashes from one side 

of the sky to the other, 
so will the Son of man be on his own day. 

But he must first endure great suffering and be. 
rejected by the present generation. And just as 
it was in the days of Noah®, so will it be in the 
days of the Son of man; they were eating, drink- 
ing, marrying and being married, till the day 
Noah entered the ark—then came the deluge and 
destroyed them all. Or just as it was in the days 
of Lot’; they were eating, drinking, buying, 
selling, planting and building, but on the day that 
Lot left Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from 
heaven and destroyed them all. So will it be on 
the day the Son of man is revealed. On that 
day, if a man is on the housetop and his goods 
inside the house, he must not go down to fetch 
them out; nor must a man in the field turn back 
(remember Lot’s wife). 

Whoever tries to secure his life will lose it, 

and whoever loses it will preserve it. 
On that night, I tell you, 

there will be two men in the one bed, 

the one will be taken and the other left; 

@ Genesis 6: 11-13; 7: '7, 21-23. 
> Genesis 18: 20-22; 19: 24-26. 
1 The Son of man is Jesus’ favorite title for himself. It occurs 
first in the book of Daniel. Later it comes to have a messianic 
content. Jesus seems to use it because it identifies him with 
the race, gives him a relationship with men beyond the Jewish 
group, suggests him as the revelation of what man is capable 


of being and places him as one who gathers up in himself all 
the high anticipations of men. 








[§ 72] Tue Larter Ministrry—In Jupara 111 


two women will be grinding together}, 
the one will be taken and the other lfeft.’’ 
They asked him, “Where, Lord ?”’ 
And he said to them, 
“Where the body is lying, 
there the vultures will gather.” 


72. The Unjust Judge. 


He also told them a parable about the need of Lk. 18:1-8 
always praying and never losing heart. “In a 
certain town,” he said, “‘there was a judge who 
had no reverence for God and no respect even 
for man. And in that town there was a widow 
who used to go and appeal to him for ‘Justice 
against my opponent! For a while he would 
not, but afterwards he said to himself, ‘Though 
I have no reverence for God and no respect 
even for man, still, as this widow is bothering 
me, I will see justice done to her—not to have 
her for ever coming and pestering me.’ Listen,” 
said the Lord, “to what this unjust judge says! 
And will not God see justice done to his elect 
who cry to him by day and night? Will he 
be tolerant to their opponents? | tell you, he 
will quickly see justice done to his elect! And 
yet, when the Son of man does come, will he find 
faith on earth?” 


73. The Pharisee and the Publican. 


He also told the following parable to certain Lk. 18:9-14 
persons who were sure of their own goodness and 
looked down upon everybody else. “‘Two men 
went up to pray in the temple; one was a Pharisee 
and the other was a taxgatherer. ‘The Pharisee 





1 Using a hand mill making meal. 


Mk. 10: 2-12 
Mt. 19: 3-12 
Mt. 19: 3 


112 THe Story or JESUS [§ 74] 


stood up and prayed by himself as follows!: 
thank thee, O God, I am not like the rest of ‘aa 
thieves, rogues, and immoral, or even like yon — 
taxgatherer. Twice a week I fast; on all my 
income I pay tithes.’ But the taxgatherer stood — 
far away and would not lift even his eyes to- 
heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “O God, have © 
mercy on me for my sins!’ I tell you, he went — 
home accepted by God rather than the other man; 
for everyone who uplifts himself will be hum- 
bled, 
and he who humbles himself will be up- 
lifted.” 


74. Divorce~. 


Now some Pharisees came up and asked him 
if a man was allowed to divorce his wife for any 
reason. ‘This was to tempt him. 5o he replied, 
“What did Moses lay down for you?”” They said, 
‘*Moses permitted a man to divorce her by writing 
out a separation notice’.”’ Jesus said to them, 
*““He wrote you that command on account of the 
hardness of your hearts. But from the beginning, 
when God created the world, 

Male and female, He created them: 
hence a man shall leave his father and 
mother’, 
and the pair shall be one flesh. 
So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What 
God has joined, then, man must not separate.” 
Indoors, the disciples again asked him about this, 





@ Cp. also Mt. 5: 31-32 and Lk. 16: 18 (§ 24, c). 
> Deuteronomy 24: 1. ¢ Genesis 1: 27; 2: 24. 





1The Pharisees had many fine qualities. This man was 
somewhat justified in being proud of his record of achieve- 
ment, but not in being so satisfied with it. 


[§ 75) Tue Lataer Ministry—In JupaEa = 113 


and he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife 
except for unchastity and marries another woman 
is an adulterer to the former, and she is an adul- 
teress if she divorces her husband and marries 
another man; and he who marries a dworced woman 
commuts adultery.” 
_ The disciples said to him, “If that % a man’s 
position with his wife, there 1s no good in marrying.” 
He said to them, “ True, but this truth vs not practi- 
cable for everyone, it 1s only for those who have the 
gift. 
There are eunuchs who have been eunuchs from 
their birth, 
there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs 
by men, 
and there are eunuchs who have made them- 
selves eunuchs for the sake of the Realm of 
heaven. 


Let anyone practice it for whom it is practicable.” 


75. Jesus and Children. 


Now people brought children for him to touch 
them and pray over them, and the disciples checked 
them!; but Jesus was angry when he saw this, 
and he said to them, “Let the children come to 
me, do not stop them: the Realm of God belongs 
to such as these. I tell you truly, whoever will 
not submit to the Reign of God like a child will 
never get into it at all.”’ Then he put his arms 
round them, laid his hands on them and blessed 
them. 





@ Cp. also Mk. 9: 36-42:'and parallels (§ 50). 





1 The disciples shared the common idea about children. They 


were to be kept in their place, “‘seen and not heard,” and | 


it was presumptuous to ask a busy man to give time to them. 


Mt. 19: 9 


Mt. 19: 9-12 


Mk. 10:13-16 
Mt. 19:13-15 
Lk. 18:15-17 
Mt. 19:18 


Mk. 10:17-31 
Mt. 19:16-30 
Lk. 18:18-30 
Lk. 22: 28-30 


Lk. 18:18 
Mt. 19:16 


Mt. 19:19 


Mt. 19: 20 


Mt. 19: 21 


Mt. 19:22 


114 THE Story orf JESUS [§ 76] 


76. The Rich Young Ruler. 


As he went out on the road a man, a ruler, 
ran up and knelt down before him. ‘‘Good 
teacher,” he asked, “‘what good deed must I do 
to inherit life eternal?” Jesus said to him, ‘* Why 
call me ‘good’? No one is good, no one but God. 
You know the commands: do not kill, do not 
commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false 
witness, do not defraud, honour your father and 
mother’, and you must love your neighbour as 
yourself °.”’ 


‘“Teacher,”’ he said, ‘““I have observed all these 


commands from my youth. What more is want- 
ing?” Jesus looked at him and loved him. 
‘“There is one thing you want,” he said; “If you 
want to be perfect, go and sell all you have; give 
the money to the poor and you will have treasure 
in heaven; then come, take up the cross, and 
follow me.” But his face fell at that, and the 
young man went sadly away, for he had great 
possessions. 

Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, 
**How difficult it is for those who have money to 
get into the Realm of God!!” The disciples 
were amazed at what he said; so he repeated, 
‘*My sons, how difficult it is [for those who rely 
on money] to get into the Realm of God! It is 
easier for a camel to get through a needle’s eye 
than for a rich man to get into the Realm of God.”’ 
They were more astounded than ever; they said 
to themselves, ‘‘Then who ever can be saved?” 





* Exodus 20: 12-16; Deuteronomy 5: 16-20. ° Leviticus 19: 18. 





1 Riches were supposed to be evidence of divine favor. If 
those who were evidently in divine favor could not get into 
the Realm, who could? 


{§77] Tue Later Ministry—In Jupaza: 115 


Jesus looked at them and said, ‘‘For men it is 
impossible, but not for God; anything is possible 
for God.” 

Peter began, ‘‘Well, we have left our all and 
followed you. Now what are we to get?” Jesus Mt. 19:27-28 
said to them, “‘I tell you truly, wn the new world, 
when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his 
glory, you who have followed me shall also sit on 
twelve thrones to govern the twelve tribes of Israel. 
I tell you truly, no one has left home or brothers 
or sisters or mother or father or children or lands 
for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, who 
does not get a hundred times as much—in this 
present world homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, 
children, and lands, together with persecutions, 
and in the world to come life eternal. Many who 
are first will be last, and many who are last will 
be first.” 


77. Labourers in the Vineyard. 


** For the Realm of heaven is like a householder Mt. 20:1-16 
who went out early in the morning to hire labour- 
ers for his vineyard; and after agreeing with the 
labourers to pay them a shilling a day he sent 
them into his vineyard. ‘Then, on going out at 
nine o’clock he noticed some other labourers 
standing in the marketplace doing nothing; to 
them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and 
I will give you whatever wage is fair.’ So they 
went in. Going out again at twelve o’clock and 
at three o’clock, he did the same thing. And 
when he went out at five o’clock he came upon 
some others who were standing; he said to them, 
‘Why have you stood doing nothing all the day?’ 
“Because nobody hired us,’ they said. He told 
them, ‘ You go into the vineyard too.” Now when 
evening came the master of the vineyard said to 


MK. 10:32-34 
Mt. 20:17-19 
Lk. 18:31-34 


Lk. 18:31 © 


Lk. 18:84 


116 THE Story or JESUS [$ 78] 


his bailiff, ‘Summon the labourers and pay them — 


their wages, beginning with the last and going 
on to the first.” When those who had been hired 
about five o’clock came, they got a shilling each. 
So when the first labourers came up, they sup- 
posed they would get more; but they too got 
each their shilling, And on getting it they 
grumbled at the householder. ‘These last,’ they 
said, ‘have only worked a single hour, and yet 


you have ranked them equal to us who have borne ~ 


the brunt of the day’s work and the heat!’ Then 
he replied to one of them, ‘My man, I am not 
wronging you. Did you not agree with me for 


a shillmg? Take what belongs to you and be off. : 


I choose to give this last man the same as you. 
Can J not do as I please with what belongs to me? 
Have you a grudge because I am generous?’ 
So shall the last be first and the first last.” 


78. Jesus Prophesies His Death. 


They were on the way up to Jerusalem, Jesus 
walking in front of them; the disciples were in 
dismay and the company who followed were 
afraid. So once again he took the twelve aside 
and proceeded to tell them what was going to 
happen to himself. ‘‘We are going up to Jeru- 
salem,” he said, ‘‘and all the predictions of the 
prophets regarding the Son of man will be fulfilled; 
he will be betrayed to the high priests and scribes; 
they will sentence him to death and hand him 
over to the Gentiles, who will mock him, spit on 


him, scourge him, and kill him; then after three 


days he will rise again.” 

However, they did not understand a word of this; 
indeed the saying was hidden from them, and they 
did not know what he meant. 


Se ————eeEeeeEeEeEeoooereeorree 


{§ 79] Tue Later Ministry—In J UDAEA 117 


79. Contention for Position. 


James and John“, the sons of Zebedaeus, came 
up to him saying, ‘“‘Teacher, we want you to do 
whatever we ask you.” So he said, ‘‘What do 
you want me to do for you?” They said to him, 
“Give us seats, one at your right hand and one 
at your left hand!, in your glory.” Jesus said, 
“You do not know what you are asking. Can 
you drink the cup I have to drink, or undergo 
the baptism? J] have to undergo?” They said to 
him, “We can.” Jesus said, “You shall drink 
the cup J have to drink and undergo the baptism 
I have to undergo; but it is not for me to grant 
seats at my right or my left hand—these belong 
to the men for whom they have been destined by 
my Father.’ Now when the ten heard of this, 
they burst into anger at James and John; so 
Jesus called them and said, 

“You know the so-called rulers of the Gentiles 
lord it over them, 
and their great men overbear them: 
not so with you. 
Whoever wants to be great among you must 
be your servant, 
and whoever of you wants to be first must 
be your slave; 
for the Son of man himself has not come to be 
served but to serve, 
and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ 


> 





¢In Mt.’s account, the conversation takes place between 
Jesus and the mother of James and John (20: 20). 





1The places of influence and power in an Oriental court. 
The conception of these men of the messianic Kingdom was 
thoroughly political. ? “The cup”’ stands for suffering, “‘the 
baptism”’ for immersion in overwhelming sorrow. 


Mk. 10:35-45 
Mt. 20:20-28 
Lk. 22:24-27 


Mt. 20:23 


Mk. 10:46-52 
Mt. 20:29-34 
Lk. 18:35-43 


Lk. 18:35 
Lk. 18:36 


Mt. 20:34 
Lk. 18: 42-43 


_ Lk. 19:1-106 


118 THE Story or JESUS [§ 80) 


80. Blind Bartimaeus. 


Then they reached Jericho; and as he was 
approaching® Jericho with his disciples and a con- — 
siderable crowd, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, 
the blind beggar who sat beside the road °, heard 
the crowd passing and inquired what was the matter, 
and they told him it was Jesus of Nazaret. So he 
started to shout, “Son of David!! Jesus! have 
pity on me.” A number of the people checked 
him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all 
the more, “Son of David, have pity on me!” 
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” Then they 
called the blind man and told him, “Courage! 
Get up, he is calling you.” Throwing off his 
cloak he jumped up and went to Jesus. Jesus 
spoke to him and said, “What do you want me 
to do for you?”’ The blind man said, “Rabboni, 
I want to regain my sight.” Then Jesus in pity 
touched his eyes and said, “Go, regain your sight, 
your faith has made you well”; and he regained 
his sight at once and followed Jesus along the 
road, glorifying God. And all the people gave 
praise to God when they saw this. 


81. Zacchaeus. 


Then he entered Jericho. And as he passed 
through it, there was a man called Zacchaeus, the 
head of the taxgatherers, a wealthy man, who 





* Both Mt. and Mk. give this incident as Jesus was leaving 
Jericho. Lk.’s order is used here so as to harmonize with the 
story of Zacchaeus, which follows. 

> Mt. alone says there were “‘two blind men’ (20: 30). 





1 A messianic title which, used in connection with the healing 
of the blind man, signified Jesus’ willingness to be accepted 
as Messiah. Isaiah had suggested the opening of blind eyes 
as one of the features of the Messiah’s reign. 


-{§ 82] Tue Later Ministry—In Jupara’ 119 


tried to see what Jesus was like; but he could not, 
on account of the crowd—for he was small of 
stature. So he ran forward and climbed into a 
sycamore tree to get a sight of him, as he was to 
pass that road. But when Jesus reached the spot 
he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come 
down at once, for I must stay at your house 
to-day.” He came down at once and welcomed 
him gladly. But when they saw this, everyone 
began to mutter that he had gone to be the guest 
of a sinner. So Zacchaeus stopped and said to 
the Lord, “I will give the half of all I have, Lord, 
to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will 
give him back four times‘ as much*’.”” And Jesus 
said of him, “To-day salvation has come to this 
house, since Zacchaeus here is a son of Abraham. 
For the Son of man has come to seek and save the 
lost °.”’ 


82. The Pounds’. 


He went on to tell a parable in their hearing, 
as he was approaching Jerusalem and as they 
imagined God’s Reign would instantly come into 
view. ‘A nobleman,” he said, “‘went abroad to 
obtain royal power for himself and then return?. 
He first called his ten servants, giving them each 
a five-pound note, and telling them, ‘Trade with 
this till I come back.’ Now his people hated him 
and sent envoys after him to say, ‘We object to 
him having royal power over us.’ However he 
secured the royal power and came home. Then 


-* Cp. Exodus 22: 1; Numbers 5: 6-7. ’ Cp. Ezekiel 34: 16. 
¢ Cp. “Parable of the Pounds,’’ Mt. 25: 14-30 (§ 92, h). 








1 The law required a double restitution. 2 Two nobles, Herod, 
the Great, and his son Archelaus, had actually gone to Rome 
for this purpose. The Jews had sent a deputation to Augustus 
protesting against the conduct of Archelaus. 


Lk. 19: 11-28 


120 THE Story or JESUS I$ 89] 


he ordered the servants to be called who had been 
given the money, that he might find out what 
business they had done. ‘The first came up 
saying, ‘Your five pounds has made other fifty, 
sir.’ ‘Capital,’ he ‘said, ‘you excellent servant! 
because you have proved trustworthy in a trifle, 
you are placed over ten towns.’ Then the second 
came and said, ‘Your five pounds has made 
twenty-five, sir.’ To him he said, ‘And you are set 
over five towns.’ Then the next came and said, 
‘Here is your five pounds, sir; 1 kept it safe in a 
napkin, for I was afraid of you, you are such a 
hard man—picking up what you never put down, 
and reaping what you never sowed.’ He replied; 
“You rascal of a servant, I will convict you by 
what you have said yourself. You knew, did you, — 
that I was a hard man, picking up what I never 
put down, and reaping what I never sowed! 
Why then did you not put my money into the 
bank, so that I could have, got it with interest 
when I came back?’ Then he said to the bystand- 
ers, ‘Take the five pounds from him and give it 
to the man with fifty.’ ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he has 
fifty already! ‘I tell you, 
to everyone who has shall more be given, 
but from him who has nothing, even what 
he has shall be taken. 

And now for these enemies of mine who objected 
to me reigning over them—bring them here and 
slay them in my presence.’ ” 

With these words he went forward on his way 
up to Jerusalem. 


V. THE FINAL WEEK—IN JERUSALEM. 


83. Entry into Jerusalem. 


Now when they came near Jerusalem, near mk. 11:1-11 
Bethphage and Bethany, at the Hill of Olives, Mt. 21:1-11 
he despatched two of his disciples, saying to them, UL. 19: 29-44 
“Go to the village in front of you. As soon as you 
enter it you will find a colt tethered ?, on which 
no one has ever sat; untether it and bring it here. 

If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing that?’ 
say, ‘The Lord needs it,’ and he will send it back 
immediately.” 

This took place for the fulfilment of what had been Mt. 21: re 
spoken by the prophet®, 

Tell the daughter of Sion, 
‘Here ws your king coming to you, 
He vs gentle and mounted on an ass, 
And on a colt the foal of a beast of burden.’ 

Off they went and found a colt tethered outside 
a door in the street. They untethered it; but 
some of the bystanders said to them, “What do 
you mean by untethering that colt?” So they 
answered as Jesus had told them, and the men 
allowed them to go. Then they brought the colt 
_to Jesus, and when they had put their clothes on 
it Jesus seated himself. Many also spread their 
clothes on the road, while others strewed leaves 
cut from the fields; and as he was now close to the Lk. 19:37 

descent from the Hill of Olives, both those in front 





“ Mt. says there was an ass also (21: 2). 
’ Isaiah 62: 11; Zechariah 9: 9. 


121 


Mt. 21:9 


Lk.19: 39-44 


Mt. 21:10-11 


122 THE SToRY oF JESUS [§ 83] 


and those who followed started joyfully to praise 
God with a loud voice for all they had seen and 
shouted, 
“Hosanna to the Son of David! 
Blessed be he* who comes in the Lord’s name?! 
Blessed be the Reign to come, our father 
David’s reign. 

Hosanna in high heaven 

Some Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘‘ Check 
your disciples, teacher.” But he replied, “TI tell 
you, uf they were to keep quiet, the very stones would 
shout.” And when he saw the city, as he ap- 
proached', he wept over rt, saying, “Would that you 
too knew even to-day on what your peace depends! 
But no, it 1s hidden from you! A time is coming 
for you when your enemies will throw wp ramparts 
round you and encircle you and besiege you on 
every side and raze you and your children within you 
to the ground?, leaving not one stone wpon another 
within you—and all because-you would not under- 
stand when God was visiting you.” 

When he entered Jerusalem the whole city was in 
excitement over him. “‘Who is this?” they said, 
and the crowds replied, “This is the prophet Jesus 
from Nazaret in Galilee!”’ 

Then he entered the temple, and looked round 
at everything; but as it was late he went away 
with the twelve to Bethany. 


cw? 
! 





@Lk.: “the King’’ (19: 38). 6 Psalm 118: 25-26. 
¢ Lk.: “‘ peace in heaven and glory in the High places!”’ (19: 38). 





1 This view of the city was magnificent. The temple with its 
gilding and white marble, the massive city walls and the 
long religious associations of the city would move any devout 
Jew to profound emotion. 

2 Literally fulfilled within forty years during the siege of 
Jerusalem by Titus. Jesus clearly saw the approaching clash 
of his people with the power of Rome. 


[§ 84] Tue Finan Weex—In Tee est 123 


84. The Money Changers in the Temple. 
The Barren Fig Tree. 


Next day, when they had left Bethany, he felt 
hungry, and noticing a fig tree in leaf some 
distance away he went to see if he could find 
anything on it; but when he reached it he found 
nothing but leaves, for it was not the time for 
figs. Then he said to it, ““May no one ever eat 
fruit from you after this!’ The disciples heard 
him say it. 

Then they came to Jerusalem, and entering 
the temple he proceeded to drive out those who 
were buying and selling inside the temple!; he 
upset the tables of the money-changers and the 
stalls of those who sold doves, and would not 
allow anyone to carry a vessel through the temple; 
also he taught them. “Is it not written,” he 
asked, ““My house shall be called a house of 
prayer for all nations? You have made it a den 
of robbers*’.”” This came to the ears of the 
scribes and high priests and the leaders of the 
people, and they tried to get him put to death 
for they were afraid of him, but they could not dis- 
cover what was to be done. But the multitude were 
all astounded at his teaching. 

Blind and lame people came up to him in the 
temple and he healed them. But when the high 
priests and scribes saw his wonderful deeds and saw 
the children who shouted in the temple, “‘Hosanna 


2 Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7: 11. 








1 Pilgrims had to be supplied with the requirements for sacrifice 
and with the local currency in which alone the temple tax 
could be paid. Jesus objected to this legitimate trade being 
carried on in the only section of the temple into which the 
Gentiles and the women could come. In the midst of such 
trading real worship for these classes was impossible. 


Mk. 11:12-25. 
Mt. 21:12-22 
Lk. 19: 45-48 
Lk. 17: 5-6 


Lk. 19: 47-48 


Mt. 21:14-16 


Mt. 21:17 


MK. 11:27-33 
Mt. 21:23-27 
Lk. 20:1-8 

Lk. 20: 1-2 


124 THE Story or JESUS [§ 85] 


to the son of David!” they were indignant; they said 


to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?” 


“Yes,” said Jesus, “have you never read, Thou hast 
brought praise to perfection from the mouth of babes 
and sucklings*?” 

And when evening came he went outside the 
city to Bethany, where he spent the night. 


Now as they passed in the morning they noticed | 
the fig tree had withered to the root. Then Peter~ 


remembered. ‘‘Rabbi,” he said, “‘there is the 
fig tree you cursed, all withered!’ Jesus answered 
them, “Have faith in God! I tell you truly, who- 
ever says to this hill, ‘Take and throw yourself 
into the sea,’ and has not a doubt in his mind but 
believes that what he says will happen, he will 
have it done. So I tell you, whatever you pray 
for and ask, believe you have got it and you shall 
have it. Also, whenever you stand up to pray, 
if you have anything against anybody, forgive 
him, so that your Father in-heaven may forgive 
you your trespasses.”’ 


85. Question of Authority. 


Once more they came to Jerusalem. And one — 


day as he was walking within the temple and 
teaching the people and preaching the gospel the 
high priests and scribes and elders came and 
asked him, “ Tell us. What authority have you for 
acting in this way? Who gave you authority to 
act in this way?” Jesus said to them, “I am 
going to ask you a question. Answer this, and I 
will tell you what authority I have for acting as 
Ido. What about the baptism of John? Was it 
from heaven or from men?” Now they argued to 
themselves, ““[What are we to say?] If we say, 


@ Psalm 8: 2. 








on 


[§ 86] Tue Finan Weex—In JERUSALEM 125 


‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why did you 
not believe him?’ No, let us say, ‘From men’ ” 
—but they were afraid of the multitude, for the 
people all held John had been really a prophet. 
So they replied to Jesus, ““We do not know.” 
Jesus said to them, “No more will I tell you what 
authority I have for acting as I do.”’ 


86. The Two Sons. 


‘Tell me what you think. A man had two sons. 
He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work 
in the vineyard today’; he replied, ‘I will go, sir,’ 
but he did not go. The man went to the second 


and said the same to him; he replied, ‘I will not,’ 


but afterwards he changed his mind and did go. 
Which of the two did the will of the father?” 
They said, “The last.’ Jesus said to them, “I 
tell you truly, the taxgatherers and harlots are 
going into the Realm of God before you. For 
John showed you the way to be good and you 
would not believe him; the taxgatherers and 
harlots believed him, and even though you saw 
that, you would not change your mind afterwards 
and believe him.”’ ) 


87. Two Parables of the Realm. 
a). The Absent Landowner. 


Then he proceeded to address them in parables. 
“A man who was a householder planted a vineyard, 
fenced it round, dug a trough for the winepress, 
and built a tower’; then he leased it to vine- 
dressers and went abroad for some time. When 
the season for frwit came round he sent a servant 
to the vinedressers to collect from the vine- 


'@ Cp. Isaiah 5: 1-2. 


Mt. 21: 28-32 


Mk. 12:1-12 
Mt. 21:33-46 
Lk. 20:9-19 
Mt. 21:33 


Lk. 20:9 
Mt. 21:34 


Mt. 21:41 


Mt. 21:43-44 


126 THe Story or JESUS [§ 87-a] 


dressers some of the produce of the vineyard, but 
they took and flogged him and sent him off with 
nothing. Once more he sent them another servant; 
him they knocked on the head and insulted. He 
sent another, but they killed him. And so they 
treated many others; some they flogged and some 
they killed. He had still one left, a beloved son; he 
sent him to them last, saying, “They will respect 
my son.’ But these vinedressers said to them- — 
selves, ‘Here is the heir; come on, let us kill him, 
and the inheritance will be our own.’ So they 
took and killed him, and threw him outside the 
vineyard. Now what will the owner of the vine-. 
yard do? He will come and destroy the vine- 
dressers, and he will give the vineyard to others 
who will give him the fruits in their season. Have 
you not even read this scripture?— 

The stone that the builders rejected is the 

chief stone now of the corner: 
this is the doing of the Lord, 
and a wonder to our eyes’. 

I tell you therefore that the Realm of God will be 
taken from you and given to a nation that bears the 
fruits of the Realm}. 

[Everyone who falls on this stone will be shat- 

tered, 
and whoever vt falls wpon will be crushed.]”’ 

Then they tried to get hold of him, but they were 
afraid of the multitude. They knew he had 
meant the parable for them. 





@ Psalm 118: 22-23. 





1A note on the parable indicating that those who thought 
themselves the chosen people of God would have to give 
way to those who proved their divine kinship by the fruit of 
their lives. 


[§s7-b] Tue Finan Weex—In Jervusatem 127 


b). The Marriage Feast ¢. 


Then Jesus again addressed them in parables. 
“The Realm of heaven,” he said, ““may be com- 
pared to a king who gave a marriage-banquet in 
honour of his son. He sent his servants to sum- 
mon the invited guests to the feast, but they 
would not come. Once more he sent some other 
servants, saying, “Tell the invited guests, here is 
my supper all prepared, my oxen and fat cattle 
are killed, everything is ready, come to the 
marriage-banquet.’ But they paid no attention 
and went off, one to his estate, another to his 
business, while the rest seized his servants and 
ill-treated them and killed them. The king 
was enraged; he sent his troops and destroyed 
those murderers and burned up their city. 
Then he said to his servants, ‘The marriage- 
banquet is all ready, but the invited guests did 
not deserve it. So go to the byeways and invite 
anyone you meet to the marriage-banquet.’ And 
those servants went out on the roads and gathered 
all they met, bad and good alike. Thus the mar- 
riage-banquet was supplied with guests. Now 
when the king came in to view his guests, he saw 
a man there who was not dressed in a wedding- 
robe. So he said to him, ‘My man, how did you 
get in here without a wedding-robe?’ The man 
was speechless. Then said the king to his serv- 
ants, ‘Take him hand and foot, and throw him 
outside, out into the darkness; there men will 
wail and gnash their teeth. For many are invited 
but few are chosen.’ ”’ 





¢ Cp. a somewhat similar parable in Lk. 14: 16-24 (§ 64). 


Mt. 22: 1-14 


Mk. 12:13-17 
Mt. 22:15-22 
Lk. 20:20-26 
Mt. 22:15 


Lk. 20:20 


Mt. 22:17-18 


Lk. 20:26 


Mt. 22:22 


MK. 12:18-27 
Mt. 22: 23-33 
Lk. 20: 27-38 


128 THE Story or JESUS [$ 88-a] 


88. A Series of Controversies. 
a). Taxes to Caesar. 


Then the Pharisees went and plotted to trap him 
in talk in order to seize on what he said and get him 
handed over to the authority and jurisdiction of the 
governor. But they sent some of the Pharisees 
and Herodians, spies who pretended to be honest 


persons, to him for the purpose of catching him - 


with a question. They came up and said to him, 
“Teacher, we know you are sincere and fearless; 
you do not court human favour, you teach the 


Way of God honestly. Tell ws, then, what you. 


think about this. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar 
or not? Are we to pay, or are we not to pay?” 
But he saw their trick and said to them, “‘ You 
hypocrites! why tempt me? Bring me a shilling. 
Let me see it.”” So they brought one. He said, 
“Whose likeness, whose inscription is this?” 
““Caesar’s,” they said. Jesus’said to them, “Give 
Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give God what 
belongs to God'.”’ 

So they could not seize on what he said before the 
people, and marvelling at his reply they said nothing. 
He astonished them. So they left him and went 


away. 
b). The Resurrection. 


Sadducees, men who hold there is no resurrec- 
tion, also came up and put a question to him. 
“Teacher,”’ they said, ‘‘Moses has written this 
law for us, that if a man’s brother dies leaving a 





1 Patriotic Jews opposed tribute to Rome. To urge that it 
be not given would bring Jesus into conflict with the civil 
authorities. Jesus offended neither group by his answer 
that the use of Caesar’s coins which helped forward their 
legitimate business carried with it the obligation to make 
some return to Caesar for the service so rendered. 


[§ 88-c] THe Fina WrEEK—IN JERUSALEM 129 


wife but no child, his brother is to take the woman 
_and raise offspring for his brother®. Now there 
were seven brothers. The first married a wife 
and died leaving no offspring: the second took 
her and died without leaving any offspring: so 
did the third: none of the seven left any offspring. 
Last of all the woman died too. At the resurrec- 
tion, when they rise, whose wife shall she be? 
She was wife to the seven of them.’ Jesus said 
to them, “Is this not where you go wrong?— 
you understand neither the scriptures nor the 
power of God. When people rise from the dead 
they neither marry nor are married, for they cannot Lk. 20:36 
die any more; they are like the angels in heaven 
and by sharing in the resurrection they are sons of Mt. 22:33 
God. As for the dead being raised, have you not 
read in the book of Moses, at the passage on the 
Bush, how God said to him, I am the God of 
Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of 
Jacob’? He is not the God of dead people but 
of living. You are far wrong.’ 
And when the crowds heard ut, they were astounded Lk. 20:39 
at his teaching. Some of the scribes declared, 
“Teacher, that was a fine answer.” 


c). The Great Commandments °¢. 


When the Pharisees heard he had silenced the Mk.12:28-34 
Sadducees, they mustered their forces and one of Mt. 22:34-40 
them, a scribe? came up, who had listened to the M70:3940 
discussion. Knowing Jesus had given them an ABELL, 
apt answer, he put this question to him, “ What 
is the chief of all the commands?” Jesus replied, 

“The chief one is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our 
God is one Lord, and you must love the Lord your 
God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, 


@ Deuteronomy 25: 5-6. ° Exodus 3:6. ¢ Cp. also Lk. 10: 
25-28 (§ 54). ¢Mt.: “a jurist” (22: 35). 





Mt. 22:38-40 


Mk. 12:35-37 
Mt. 22:41-46 
Lk. 20:41-44 


Mt. 22:41 


Mf. 23: 1-39 
Mk. 12:38-40 
Lk. 20:45-47 
Lk. 13:34-35 


130 THE Story or JESUS [$ 89] 


with your whole mind, and with your whole 
strength. This vs the greatest and chief command. 
The second is like 7: You must love your neigh- 
bour as yourself’. There is no other command 
greater than these. The whole Law and _ the 
prophets hang on these two commands.’ The scribe 
said to him, “Right, teacher! You have truly 
said, He is One, and there is none else but Him. 
Also, to love him with the whole heart, with the 


whole understanding, and with the whole strength, © 


and to love one’s neighbour as oneself—that is far 
more than all holocausts and sacrifices.” Jesus 
noted his intelligent answer and said to him, “ You 


are not far off the Realm of God.’ After that. 


no one ventured to put any more questions to 
him. 


89. Christ and David. 


And as Jesus taught in the temple and the 
Pharisees had mustered, he asked, “‘How can the 
scribes say that the Christ is David’s son? David 
himself said in the holy Spirit °, 

The Lord said to my Lord, 
‘Sit at my right hand, 
till I make your enemies a 
footstool for your feet.’ 
David here calls him Lord. Then how can he be 
his son?” 

Now the mass of the people listened with delight 

to him. 


90. Condemnation of the Pharisees?. 


Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his dis- 
ciples. ‘‘ Beware of the scribes! The scribes and 





@ Deuteronomy 6: 4-5. ° Leviticus 19:18. ¢ Psalm 110: 1. 
2 Cp. also Lk. 11: 39-52 (§ 57). 


—{§ 90] Tue Frnan Wreex—In JERusSALEM: 131 


Pharisees sit on the seat of Moses; so do whatever Mk&. 12: 38- 
they tell you, obey them, but do not do as they 
do. They talk but they do not act. They make 
up heavy loads and lay them on men’s shoulders 
but they will not stir a finger to remove them. 
They prey upon the property of widows and offer 
long unreal prayers. All the heavier will their 
sentence be! Besides, all they do is done to catch 
the notice of men; they make their phylacteries 
broad’, they wear large tassels, they are fond of 
the best places at banquets and the front seats 
in the synagogues; they like to be saluted in the 
marketplaces and to be called ‘rabbi’ by men. 
But you are not to be called ‘rabbi,’ 
for One is your teacher, and you are all 
brothers; 
you are not to call anyone ‘father’ on earth, 
for One is your heavenly Father; 
nor must you be called ‘leaders,’ 
for One is your leader, even the Christ. 
He who is greatest among you must be your 
servant. 
Whoever uplifts himself will be humbled, 
and whoever humbles himself will be up- 
lifted. 
Woe to you, you impious scribes and Phari- 
sees! 
you shut the Realm of heaven in men’s 
faces; 
you neither enter yourselves, 
nor will you let those enter who are on the 
point of entering. 
Woe to you, you impious scribes and Phari- 
sees! 
you traverse sea and land to make a single 
proselyte, 


* Numbers 15: 38-39; Deuteronomy 6: 8. 





132 THE Story or JESUS [$ 90] 


and when you succeed you make him a son 
of Gehenna twice as bad as yourselves. 
Woe to you, blind guides that you are! 
you say, ‘Swear by the sanctuary, and it 
means nothing; 
but swear by the gold of the sanctuary, 
and the oath is binding.’ 
You are senseless and blind! for which is 
the greater, 
the gold or the sanctuary that makes the ~ 
gold sacred? 
You say again, ‘Swear by the altar, and it 
means nothing; 
but swear by the gift upon it, and the oath. 
is binding.’ 
You are blind! for which is the greater, 
the gift or the altar that makes the gift 
sacred ? 
He who swears by the altar 
swears by it and by all that lies on it; 
he who swears by the ‘sanctuary 
swears by it and by Him who inhabits 
te 
He who swears by heaven 
swears by the throne of God and by 
Him who sits upon it. 
Woe to you, you impious scribes and Phari- 
sees ! 
you tithe mint and dill and cummin, 
and omit the weightier matters of the law, 
justice and mercy and faithfulness°; 
these latter you ought to have practised 
—without omitting the former. 
Blind guides that you are, 
filtering away the gnat and swallowing the 
camel! 


¢ Leviticus 27: 30; Micah 6: 8. 





[§ 90] Tue Fryan Werex—In Jerusatem 133 


Woe to you, you irreligious scribes and 
Pharisees! 
you clean the outside of the cup and the 
plate, 
but inside they are filled with your 
rapacity and self-indulgence. 
Blind Pharisee! first clean the inside of the 
cup, 
so that the outside may be clean as well. 
Woe to you, you irreligious scribes and 
Pharisees! 
you are like tombs whitewashed ; 
they look comely on the outside, 
but inside they are full of dead men’s 
bones and all manner of impurity. 
So to men you seem just, 
but inside vou are full of hypocrisy and 
iniquity. 

Woe to you, you irreligious scribes and Phari- 
sees! You build tombs for the prophets and 
decorate the tombs of the just, and you say, ‘If 
we had been living in the days of our fathers, we 
would not have joined them in shedding the 
blood of the prophets.’ So you are witnesses 
against yourselves, that you are sons of those 
who killed the prophets! And you will fill up the 
measure that your fathers filled. You serpents! 
you brood of vipers! how can you escape being 
sentenced to Gehenna? This is why I will send 
you prophets, wise men, and scribes, some of 
whom you will kill and crucify, some of whom you 
will flog in your synagogues and persecute from 
town to town; it is that on you may fall the 
punishment for all the just blood shed on earth 
from the blood of Abel the just down to the 
blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah*, whom 


* Genesis 4: 8; II Chronicles 24: 20-21. 





Mk. 12:41-44 
Lk. 21:1-4 


MK. 13: 1-2 
Mt. 24:1-2 
Lk. 21:5-6 


oo 


134. Tue Story or JESUS [§ 91] | 


you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 
I tell you truly, it will all come upon this genera 
tion. 
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! slaying the prophets — 
and stoning those who have been sent to you! 
How often I would fain have gathered your chil-— 
dren as a fowl gathers her brood under her wings! 
But you would not have it! See, your House is 
left to you, desolate®. For I tell you, you will 
never see me again till you say, Blessed be he 
who comes in the Lord’s name?.” 


91. The Widow’s Gift. 


Sitting down opposite the treasury, he watched 
the people putting their money into the treasury. 
A number of the rich were putting in large sums, 
but a poor widow came up and put in two little 
coins amounting to a halfpenny. And he called 
his disciples and said to them, “I tell you truly, 
this poor widow has put in more than all who have 
put their money into the treasury; for they have 
all put in a contribution out of their surplus, but 
she has given out of her neediness all she possessed, 
her whole living.” 


92. Warnings of the Future. 
a). Destruction of the Temple. 


As he went out of the temple one of his disciples 
said to him, “Look, teacher, what a size these 
stones and buildings! are!’ Jesus said to him, 


«Cp. Jeremiah 12:7; 22: 5. >’ Psalm 118: 26. 





1 The temple seemed the last word in magnificence and religious 
sanctity. It had been fifty years in building and was not 
yet complete. It was, though incomplete, an impressive 
building. The outer walls were pure white. ‘‘The platform 


[§92-b] Toe Finan WreEek—In JERUSALEM 135 


“You see these great buildings? There are days 
coming when not a stone shall be left on another, 
without being torn down.” 


b). Signs of the End. 


And as he sat on the Hill of Olives! opposite 
the temple, Peter and James and John and 
Andrew asked him in private, “Tell us, when is 
this to happen? What will be the sign for all this 
to be accomplished?”’ So Jesus began: “Take 
care that no one misleads you:—many will come 
in my name saying, ‘I am he’, the time ws near,’ 
and mislead many. Do not go after them. And 
when you hear of wars and rumours of war, do 
not be alarmed; these have to come, but it is 
not the end yet. For nation will rise against 
nation, and realm aga ‘nst realm; there will be 
earthquakes here and there, and famines too; 
there will be awful portents and signs from heaven. 
All that is but the beginning of the trouble. 


c). Persecution. 


Look to yourselves. Men will hand you over 
to Sanhedrins and you will be flogged in syna- 
gogues and brought before governors and kings 
for my sake, to testify to them. (Ere the end, 
the gospel must be preached to all nations.) 
Now when they carry you off to trial, do not 





@Mt.: “I am the Christ” (24: 5). 





above them was surrounded by four marble cloisters, one at 
least of which was larger and higher than York Minster. 
These cloisters embraced a building of marble and gold ap- 
proached by a gateway 150 feet in height, higher, that is to 
say, than the facade of St. Peter’s at Rome.” 

1A hill a short distance outside the city and to the east, 
directly opposite the temple site. 


Lk. 21:6 


Mk. 13:3-8 
Mt. 24:3-8 
Lk. 21:7-11 


LEEZies 


Wr TER iy | 


MK. 13: 9-13 
Mt. 24:9-14 
Mt. 10: 17-23 
Lk, 21:12-19 


Mt. 24:10-12 


Lk. 21:18-19 


Mt. 24:14 


MK. 13:14-20 
Mt. 24:15-22 
Lk. 21:20-24 


Lk. 21:20 
Mt. 24:16 


Lk. 21:21-22 


Lk. 21:23-24 


136 Tue Story oF JESUS [§ 92-d] 





worry beforehand about what you are to say; 
say whatever comes to your lips at the moment, 
for he who speaks is not you but the holy Spirit. 
Brother will betray brother to death, the father will 
betray his child, children will rise against their 
parents and kill them, and you will be hated by 
all men on account of my name; and many will 
be repelled then, they will betray one another and 
hate one another. Many false prophets will rise 
and mislead many. And in most of you love will 
grow cold by the increase of iniquity but not a hair 
of your head will perish. He will. be saved who 
holds out to the very end. This gospel of the 
Reign shall be preached all over the wide world as 
a testimony to all the Gentiles, and then the end will 
come. 
d). Characteristics of the End. 


But whenever you see Jerusalem surrounded by 
armies, then be sure her desolation is not far away. 
But whenever you see the appalling Horror 
spoken of by the prophet Daniel’ standing 
in the holy place where he has no right to stand 
(let the reader note this), then let those who are 
in Judaea fly to the hills; a man on the housetop 
must not go down into the house or go inside 
to fetch anything out of his house, and a man in 
the field must not turn back to get his coat. Let 
those who are in the city escape, and let not those 
who are in the country come in to the city; for these 
are the days of the dwine Vengeance, in fulfilment 
of all that 1s written in scripture. Woe to women 
with child and to women who give suck in those 
days, for sore anguish will come wpon the land and 





1A clear reference to Daniel 9: 27; 11:31; 12:11. Jesus is 
picturing the impending invasion of Jerusalem and the 
temple by the Romans. 


[§ 92-e] Toe Fina WrEEK—IN JERUSALEM 137 


Wrath on this people; they will fall by the edge of 
the sword, they will be carried prisoners to all 
nations, and Jerusalem will be under the heel of 
the Gentiles till the period of the Gentiles expires. 

Pray it may not be winter when it comes, for those 
days will be days of misery, the like of which has 
never been from the beginning of God’s creation 
until now—no and never shall be. Had not the 
Lord cut short those days, not a soul would be 
saved alive; but he has cut them short for the 
sake of the elect whom he has chosen. 


e). The Coming of the Son of Man. 


If anyone tells you at that time, ‘Look, here 
is the Christ,’ or, ‘Look, there he is,’ do not 
believe it; for false Christs and false prophets 
will rise and perform signs and wonders to mis- 
lead the elect if they can. Now take care! I 
am telling you of it all beforehand. 

If they tell you, ‘Here he vs in the desert,’ 
do not go out; 
‘here he is in the chamber,’ 
do not believe tt. 
For like lightning that shoots from east to 
west, 
so will be the arrwal of the Son of man. 
Wherever the body les, | 
there will the vultures gather. 
But when that misery is past, in those days, 
the sun will be darkened 
and the moon will not yield her light, 
the stars will drop from heaven, 
and the orbs of the heavens will be shaken?, 





* Cp. Isaiah 13: 9-10; 34: 4; Ezekiel 32: 7-8; Joel 2: 1-2, 10-11, 
30-31; Amos 8:9; Zephaniah 1: 14-16. 


MK. 13: 21-37 
Mt. 24:23-42 
Lk. 21:25-38 


M t. 24: 26-28 


Lk. 21:25-26 


Mt. 24:30-31 


Lk, 21:28 


Mt. 24:37-41 


138 THE Story or JESUS [§ 92-e] 


while on earth the nations will be in dismay with 
bewilderment at the roar of sea and waves, men 
swooning with panic and foreboding of what rs to 
befall the universe. ‘Then they will see the Son of 
man coming in the clouds of heaven with great 
power and glory®. Then he will despatch his 
angels and muster the elect from the four winds, 
from the verge of earth to the verge of heaven °. 
But when these things begin to happen, look up 
and raise your heads, for your release is not far. 
distant. 

Let the fig tree teach you a parable. As soon 
as its branches turn soft and put out leaves, you 
know summer is at hand; so, whenever you see 
this happen, you may be sure He is at hand’, at 
the very door. 

I tell you truly, the present generation will 
not pass away till all this happens. Heaven and 
earth will pass away, but my words never. 

Now no one knows anything about that day 
or hour, not even the angels in heaven, not even 
the Son, but only the Father. As were the days 
of Noah?, so will the arrival of the Son of man be. 
For as in the days before the deluge people ate and 
drank, married and were married, till the day 
Noah entered the ark; and as they knew nothing 
till the deluge came and swept them all away; so 
will the arrival of the Son of man be. 

Then there will be two men in the field, 
one will be taken and one will be left; 
two women will be grinding at the millstone, 
one will be taken and one will be left®. 





@ Cp. Daniel 7: 13-14. ° Cp. Deuteronomy 30: 4; Isaiah 27: 
12-13; Zechariah 2:6 ¢Lk.: “the Reign of God is at hand” 
(21: 31). 4 Genesis 6: 11-14; 7: 7, 21-23. * Cpa Leahy: 
96-32 (§ 71). 


(§ 92-f] Tue Finan Wreex—In JERUSALEM 139 


Take care, keep awake and pray;: you never 
know the time, in case your hearts get overpowered 
by dissipation and drunkenness and worldly anxi- 
eties, and so that Day catches you suddenly like a 
trap. For rt will come upon all dwellers on the face 
of all the earth. 

It is like a man leaving his house to go abroad; 
he puts his servants in charge, each with his work 
to do, and he orders the porter to keep watch. 
Watch then, for you never know when the Lord 
of the House will come, in the late evening or at 
midnight or at cock-crow or in the morning. 
Watch, in case he comes suddenly and finds you 
asleep. Watch: I say it to you, and I say it to 
all. 

f). The Wise Servant?. 


But be sure of this, that if the householder had 
known at what watch in the night the thief was 
coming, he would have been on the watch, he 
would not have allowed his house to be broken 
into. So be ready yourselves, for the Son of man 
is coming at an hour you do not expect. 

Now where is the trusty and thoughtful servant, 
whom his lord and master has set over his house- 
hold to assign them their supplies at the proper 
time? Blessed is that servant if his lord and mas- 
ter finds him so doing when he arrives! I tell you 
truly, he will set him over all his property. But 
if the bad servant says to himself, ‘My lord and 
master is long of coming,’ and if he starts to beat 
his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with 
drunkards, that servant’s lord and master will 
arrive on a day when he does not expect him and 
at an hour which he does not know; he will cut 
him in two and assign him the fate of the hypo- 
crites. There men will wail and gnash their teeth. 
@ Cp. Lk. 12: 39-46 (§ 59). 


Lk. 21:34-35 


Mt. 24: 43-51 


Mt. 25:1-13 


Mt. 25: 14-30 


140 Tue Story or JESUS [§ 92-g] 


¢). Wise and Foolish Maidens?. 


Then shall the Realm of heaven be compared 
to ten maidens who took their lamps and went 
out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. Five 
of them were stupid and five were sensible. For 
although the stupid took their lamps, they took 
no oil with them, whereas the sensible took oil 
in their vessels as well as their lamps. As the 
bridegroom was long of coming, they all grew 
drowsy and went to sleep. But at midnight the 
cry arose, “Here is the bridegroom! Come out 
to meet him!’ Then all the maidens rose and 
trimmed their lamps. The stupid said to the 
sensible, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps 
are going out.’ But the sensible replied, ‘No, 
there may not be enough for us and for you. 
Better go to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ 
Now while they were away buying oil, the bride- 
groom arrived; those maidens who were ready 
accompanied him to the marriage-banquet, and 
the door was shut. Afterwards the rest of the 
maidens came and said, ‘Oh sir, oh sir, open the 
door for us!’ but he replied, ‘I tell you frankly, 
I do not know you.’ Keep on the watch then, 
for you know neither the day nor the hour. 


h). The Pounds?, 


For the case is that of a man going abroad, who 
summoned his servants and handed over his 
property to them; to one he gave twelve hundred — 
pounds, to another five hundred, and to another — 
two hundred and fifty; each got according to his 
capacity. Then the man went abroad. The 





2 Cp. Lk. 12: 35-38 (§ 59). 
’Cp. “The Parable of the Pounds,”’ Lk. 19: 12-27 (§ 82). 


[§ 92-h] THe Frnat WEEK—IN JERUSALEM 141 


servant who had got the twelve hundred pounds 
at once went and traded with them, making 
another twelve hundred. Similarly the servant 
who had got the five hundred pounds made 
another five hundred. But the servant who had 
got the two hundred and fifty pounds went off 
and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s 
money. Now a long time afterwards the master 
of those servants came back and settled accounts 
with them. Then the servant who had got the 
twelve hundred pounds came forward, bringing 
twelve hundred more; he said, ‘You handed me 
twelve hundred pounds, sir; here I have gained 
another twelve hundred.’ His master said to him, 
‘Capital, you excellent and trusty servant! You 
have been trusty in charge of a small sum; I will 
put you in charge of a large sum. Come and share 
your master’s feast.’ Then the servant with the 
five hundred pounds came forward. He said, 
‘You handed me five hundred pounds, sir; here 
I have gained another five hundred.’ His master 
said to him, ‘Capital, you excellent and trusty 
servant! You have been trusty in charge of a 
small sum: I will put you in charge of a large 
sum. Come and share your master’s feast.’ Then 
the servant who had got the two hundred and 
fifty pounds came forward. He said, ‘I knew 
you were a hard man, sir, reaping where you 
never sowed and gathering where you never 
winnowed. So I was afraid; I went and hid your 
two hundred and fifty pounds in the earth. 
There’s your money!’ His master said to him 
in reply, ‘You rasca], you idle servant! You 
knew, did you, that I reap where I have never 
sowed and gather where I have never winnowed! 
Well then, you should have handed my money to 
the bankers and I would have got my capital with 


Mt. 25:31-46 


142 Tue Story or JEsus [§ 92-1] 


interest when I came back. Take therefore the 
two hundred and fifty pounds away from him, 
give it to the servant who had the twelve hundred. 
For to everyone who has shall more be given 
and richly given; 
but from him who has nothing, even what | 
he has shall be taken. 
Throw the good-for-nothing servant into the 
darkness outside; there men will wail and gnash 
their teeth.’ 


i). The Sheep and the Goats. 


When the Son of man comes in his glory and 
all the angels with him’, then he will sit on the 
throne of his glory, and all nations will be gathered 
in front of him; he will separate them one from 
another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from 
the goats, setting the sheep on his right hand and 
the goats on his left. Then shall the King say to 
those on his right, ‘Come you whom my Father 
has blessed, come into your inheritance in the 
realm prepared for you from the foundation of 
the world. 


For I was hungry and you fed me, 
I was thirsty and you gave me drink, 
I was a stranger and you entertained me, 
I was unclothed and you clothed me, 
I was ill and you looked after me, 
I was in prison and you visited me.’ 
Then the just will answer, 
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and fed 
you? or thirsty and gave you drink? 
when did we see you a stranger and enter- 
tained you? or unclothed and clothed 
you? 


2 Cp. Zechariah 14: 5. 





(§ 93) Toe Frnat Werk—In JERUSALEM 143 


when did we see you ill or in prison and 
visited you?’ 
The King will answer them, ‘I tell you truly, in 
so far as you-did it to one of these brothers of 
mine, even to the least of them, you did it to me.’ 
Then he will say to those on the left, ‘Begone 
from me, you accursed ones, to the eternal fire 
which has been prepared for the devil and his 
angels! 
For I was hungry but you never fed me, 
I.was thirsty but you never gave me drink, 
I was a stranger but you never entertained 
me, 
I was unclothed but you never clothed me, 
I was ill and in prison but you never looked 
after me.’ 
Then they will answer too, ‘Lord, when did we 
ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or 
unclothed or ill or in prison, and did not minister 
to you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘I tell you 
truly, in so far as you did not do it to one of these, 
even the least of them, you did not do it to me.’ 
So they shall depart to eternal punishment, 
and the just to eternal life *.”’ 

By day he taught in the temple, but at night he Lk. 21: 37-38 
went outside the city and passed the night on the 
hill called the Olive-Orchard. And all the people 
used to come early in the morning to listen to him 
in the temple. 


93. The Authorities Conspire. 


When Jesus finished saying all this he said to Mt. 26:1-5 


his disciples, ““You know the passover? is to be pease 





@ Cp. Daniel 12: 2. 
» Also called, “‘the feast of unleavened bread” (Lk. 22:1). 


Mid hid 


MK. 14:3-11 
Mt. 26:6-16 
Lk. 22:3-6 


Mt. 26: 15 


144 THe Story or JESUS [§ 94] 


held two days after this; and the Son of man will 
be delivered up to be crucified.” 

Then the high priests and the scribes and the 
elders of the people met in the palace of the high 
priest who was called Caiaphas and took counsel 
together to get hold of Jesus by craft and have | 
him put to death. “Only,” they said, “it must 
not be during the festival, in case of a riot among 
the people.” 


94. The Precious Ointment. 


Now when he was at Bethany in the house of 
Simon the leper, lying at table, a woman came up 
with an alabaster flask of pure nard perfume, 
which had cost a great sum; the flask she broke 
and poured the perfume over his head. This 
angered some of those present’. ‘“‘ What was the 
use of wasting perfume like this? This perfume 
might have been sold for over three hundred 
shillings, and the poor might have got that.” 
So they upbraided her. But Jesus said, “Let her 
alone. Why are you annoying her? She has 
done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you 
always have beside you, and you can be kind to 
them whenever you want; but you will not al- 
ways have me. She has done all she could—she 
has anticipated the perfuming of my body for 
burial. I tell you truly, wherever the gospel is 
preached all over the world, men will speak of 
what she has done in memory of her.” 

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went 
to the high priests to betray him to them and savd, 
“What will you give me for betraying him to you?” 
They were delighted to hear it, and promised to 


* Cp. also Lk. 7: 36-50 (§ 27) for a somewhat similar in- 
cident. ® T.e., some of the disciples (Mt. 26: 8). 


[§ 95] Toe Finan Wreex—In JERUSALEM 145 


pay him for it?. Meantime he sought a good 
opportunity for betraying him in the absence of 
the crowd. 


95. The Last Supper. 


On the first day of unleavened bread (the day? 
when the paschal lamb was sacrificed) his disci- 
ples said to him, “‘Where do you want us to go 
and prepare for you to eat the passover?”’ So 
he despatched two ° of his disciples, telling them, 
“Go into the city and you will meet a man carry- 
ing a water-jar!; follow him, and whatever house 
he goes into, tell the owner that the Teacher 
says, ‘My tume is near. Where is my room, that 
I may eat the passover there with my disciples?’ 
He will show you a large room upstairs, with 
couches spread, all ready; prepare the passover 
for us there.” The disciples went away into the 
city and found it was as he had told them. So 
they prepared the passover, and when evening 
fell he arrived along with the twelve. As they 
were at table eating, Jesus said, “JI have longed 
eagerly to eat this passover with you before I suffer, 
for I tell you I will never eat the passover again till 
the fulfilment of it in the Reign of God. Truly I 
tell you, one of you is going to betray me, one who 
is eating with me.”’ They got distressed at this, 
and said to him one after another, “Lord, surely 
it isnot me?” “Surely it isnot me?” “One of 





¢Mt.: “And they weighed out for him thirty silver pieces” 
(26:15). Cp. Zechariah 11: 12. >’ Exodus 12: 17-20. 
¢Lk.: “Peter and John” (22: 8). 


1It is not necessary to take this as meaning Jesus made use 
of supernatural knowledge. The story suggests prearrange- 
ment of which the disciples did not know. The secret arrange- 
ments were intended to avoid interference from the passover 
crowds or the authorities. 





MK. 14:12-25 
Mt. 26:17-29 
Lk. 22:7-23 


Mt. 26:18 


Lk. 22: 15-16 


Mt. 26: 22 


Mt. 26: 25 


Lk. 22: 19-20 


Mt. 26:28 


MK. 14: 26-31 
Mt. 26:30-35 
Lk. 22:31-38 


MiseOloL 


Lk. 22:31-33 


146 Tur Story oF JESUS [§ 96] 


the twelve,” he told them, “one who is dipping 
into the same dish as I am. The Son of man 
goes the road that the scripture has described 
for him, but woe to the man by whom the Son of 
man is betrayed! Better that man had never 
been born!”’ Then Judas his betrayer said, “Surely — 
at rs not me, rabhi?”’ He said to him, “Is tt not?” 

And as they were eating he took a loaf and 
after the blessing he broke and gave it to them, 
saying, “Take this, it means my body gwen up- 
for your sake; do this in memory of me.” So 
too after supper he also took a cup and after thank- 
ing God he gave it to them, and they all drank 
of it; he said to them, “This means my covenant- 
blood? which is shed for many to win remission 
of their sins®; truly I tell you, I will never drink 
the produce of the vine again‘till the day I drink 
it new with you within the Realm of God.” 


96. Peter’s Denial Predicted. 


After the hymn of praise they went out to the 
Hill of Olives. Jesus said to them, “You will all 
be disconcerted over me tonight, for it is written: 
TI will strike at the shepherd and the sheep of the 
flock will be scattered°®. But after my rising I 
will precede you to Galilee.’? Peter said to him, 
“Though all are disconcerted, I willnot be.” Jesus 
said to him, “‘Szmon, Semon, Satan has claimed 
the right to sift you all like wheat, but I have prayed 
that your own farth may not fail. And you in turn 
must be a strength to your brothers. I tell you 
truly, to-day you will disown me three times, 
this very night, before the cock crows twice.” 
@ Cp. Exodus 24: 8; Zechariah 9: 11; Jeremiah 31: 31; Leviticus. 


4: 18-20. >Lk.: “for your sake” (22: 20). 
¢ Cp. Zechariah 13: 7. 


[§ 96] THe Finan Werx—In JERUSALEM 147 


But he persisted, “‘ Lord, I am ready to go with you 
to prison and to death. Though I have to die 
with you, I will never disown you.” And they 
all said the same. 

And he said to them, “When I sent you out with 
neither purse nor wallet nor sandals, did you want 
for anything?” “No,” they said, “for nothing.” 
Then he said to them, “But he who has a purse 
must take it now, and the same with a wallet; and 
he who has no sword must sell his coat and buy one. 
For I tell you, this word of scripture must be ful- 
filled in me: he was classed among criminals®. 
Yes, there is an end to all that refers to me.”’ “‘ Lord,” 
they said, “here are two swords!” “Enough! 
Enough!” he answered. 


@ Tsaiah 53: 12. 





Lk. 22:35-38 


Mk. 14:32-42 
Mt. 26:36-46 
Lk. 22:39-46 


Lk. 22:43-44 


Lk. 22:45 


VI. THE CRUCIFIXION AND 
RESURRECTION. 


97. Gethsemane. 


Then they came to a place called Gethsemane, 
and he told his disciples, “Sit here till I pray.” 
But he took Peter and James and John along with 
him; and as he began to feel appalled and agi- 
tated, he said to them, “My heart is sad, sad 
even to death; stay here and watch.’ Then he 
went forward a little and fell to the earth, praying 
that the hour might pass away from him, if pos- 
sible. “‘Abba, Father,” he said, “Thou canst do 
anything. Take this cup away from me’. Yet, 
not what I will but what thou wilt.” [And an 
angel from heaven appeared to strengthen him; he 
fell into an agony and prayed with greater intensity, 
his sweat dropping to the ground like clots of blood.] 

Then rising from prayer he came and found them 
asleep from sheer sorrow; so he said to Peter, 
‘Are you sleeping, Simon? Could you not watch 
for a single hour? Watch and pray, all of you, 
so that you may not slip into temptation. The 
spirit is eager but the flesh is weak.’ Again he 
went away and prayed in the same words as 
before ®; then he returned and found them once 
more asleep, for their eyes were heavy. They 
did not know what to say to him’. Then he came 


@Mt.: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass me” 
(26: 39). ’Mt.: “My Father, if this cup cannot pass 
unless I drink it, thy will be done” (26: 42). ; 

e Mt. inserts: ‘“‘So he left them and went back for the third 
time, praying in the same words as before” (26: 44). 


148 


[§ 98] THe CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION 149 


for the third time and said to them, “Still asleep? 
still resting? No more of that! The hour has 
come, here is the Son of man betrayed into the 
hands of sinners. Come, get up, here is my 
betrayer close at hand.” 


98. The Betrayal. 


At that very moment, while he was still speak- 
ing, Judas [[scariot] one of the twelve came up 
accompanied by a mob with swords and clubs 
who had come from the high priests and scribes 
and elders. Now his betrayer had given them a 
signal; he said, “‘Whoever I kiss, that is the man. 
Seize him and get him safely away.” So when 
he arrived he at once went up to him and said, 
** Hail! Rabbi,” and kissed him. But Jesus said to 
him, “Judas! would you betray the Son of man with a 
kiss? My man, do your errand.” ‘Then they laid 
hands on him and seized him. 

Now when the supporters of Jesus saw what was 
going to happen, they said, “‘ Lord, shall we strike 
with our swords?” One of the bystanders drew 
his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, 
cutting off his ear. 

Jesus said, “Let me do this at least,’ and cured 
him by touching his ear. Then Jesus said to him, 
“Put your sword back into its place; all who 
draw the sword shall die by the sword. What! do 
you think I cannot appeal to my Father to furnish 
me at this moment with over twelve legions of angels? 
Only, how could the scriptures be fulfilled then— 
the scriptures that say this must be so?” 

Jesus turned on them, saying, “Have you sallied 
out to arrest me like a robber, with swords and 
clubs? Day after day I was beside you in the 
temple teaching, and you never seized me. How- 
ever, it is to let the scriptures be fulfilled.’” 


Mk. 


14:43-52 


Mt. 26:47-57 
Lk. 22:47-53 


Mt. 


Lk. 2: 
Mt. 26: 


Lk» 22: 


Lk. 
Mt. 


e561 
26:52-54 


Mk. 14:53-65 


Mt. 


Lk 


26:57-68 


. 22:54-55, 


Q- 


Mt. 26:57 


Mt. 26:59 


Mt. 26:63 


Lk. 


22:67-70 


150 THE Story oF JESUS [§ 99] 


Then they left him and fled, all of them; one 
young man did follow him, with only a linen sheet 
thrown round his body, but when the [young] 
men seized him he fled away naked, leaving the 
sheet behind him. 


99. Trial Before the Sanhedrin. 


They took Jesus away to the high priest, 
Caiaphas, and all the high priests and scribes and 
elders met there with him. Peter followed him at 
a distance till he got inside the courtyard of the 
high priest, where he sat down with the attend- 
ants to warm himself at the fire. 

Now the high priests and the whole of the 
Sanhedrin tried to secure false evidence against 
Jesus, in order to have him put to death; but 
they could find none, for while many bore false 
witness against him their evidence did not agree. 
Some got up and bore false witness against him, 
saying, “‘We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this 
temple made by hands, and in three days I will 
build another temple not made by hands.’”? But 
even so the evidence did not agree. So the high 
priest rose in their midst and asked Jesus, ““Have 
you no reply to make? What about this evidence 
against you?” He said nothing and made no 
answer. Again the high priest put a question to 
him. “Are you the Christ?” he said, “the Son 
of the Blessed? JI adjure you by the living Ged, 
tell us.” Jesus said, “You will not believe me 
of I tell you and you will not answer me when I 
put a question to you. Lam. And, what is more, 
you will all see the Son of man sitting at the 
right hand of the Power and coming with the 
clouds of heaven*.” “Are you the Son of God 


¢ Psalm 110: 1; Daniel 7: 13. 


[§ 100] THE CRUCIFIXION AND ResurREcTION 151 


then?” they all said. “‘Certainly,” he replied, ‘I 
am.” ‘Then the high priest tore his clothes 
and cried, ““What more evidence do we want? 
You have heard his blasphemy for yourselves. 
What is your mind??” They condemned him, 
all of them, to the doom of death; and some of 
them started to spit on him and to blindfold 
him and buffet him, asking him, “Prophesy 
to us, you Christ! tell us who struck you!’ The 
attendants treated him to cuffs and slaps. 


100. Peter’s Denial?. 


Now as Peter was downstairs in the courtyard, 
a maidservant of the high priest came along, and 
when she noticed Peter warming himself she 
looked at him and said, “‘You were with Jesus 
of Nazaret‘’ too.” But he denied it. “‘I do not 
know,” he said, “I -ave no idea what you mean.” 
Then he went outside into the passage. The 
cock crowed. Again the maidservant? who had 
noticed him began to tell the bystanders, “‘ That 
fellow is one of them.” But he denied it again. 
He swore, “I do not know the man.” After a little’ 
the bystanders once more said to Peter, “To be 
sure, you are one of them. Why, you are a 
Galilean!! Why, your accent betrays you!” But 
he broke out cursing and swearing, “I do not 
know the man you mean.” At that moment the 
cock crowed for the second time. The Lord turned 
round and looked at Peter. ‘Then Peter remem- 
bered how Jesus had told him, “ Before the cock 
@ Leviticus 24:16. ° In Lk.’s account, Peter’s denial precedes 
the trial before the Sanhedrin. ¢ Mt.: “the Galilean”’ 
(26:69). 4% Lk.: “another man” (22: 58). ¢Lk.: “about 
an hour’”’ (22: 59). ! 


1 Peter’s accent would show him to be a Galilean. 





Mt. 26:68 


Mik. 14:66-72 
Mt. 26:69-75 
Lk. 22:56-65 


Mt. 26:72 


Mt. 26:73 


Lk. 22:61 


Mt. 26:75 
Lk. 22:63-65 


Mt. 27: 1-14 
Mk. 15:1-5 
Lk. 23:1-3 


152 THE Story oF JESUS [§ 101] 


crows twice you will disown me thrice’; and he 
went outside and burst into tears?. 

Meantime the men who had Jesus in custody 
flogged him and made fun of him; blindfolding him 
they would ask him, “ Prophesy, tell us who struck 
you?” And many another insult they uttered 
against him. 


101. Trial Before Pilate. 


When morning came, all the high priests and 
the elders of the people took counsel against 
Jesus, so as to have him put to death. After 
binding him, they led him off and handed him 
over to Pontius Pilate the governor. 

Then Judas his betrayer saw he was condemned, 
and repented; he brought back the thirty silver 
pieces to the high priests and elders, saying, “I 
did wrong in betraying innocent blood.” “‘ What 
does that matter to us?” they said, “it is your 
affair, not ours!’ Then he flung down the silver 
pieces in the temple and went off and hung him- 
self. The high priests took the money and said, 
“It would be wrong to put this into the treasury, 
for it is the price of blood®.”’ So after consulting 
they bought with it the Potter’s Field, to serve 
as a burying-place for strangers. That is why the 
field is called to this day “‘The Field of Blood.” 
Then the word spoken by the prophet Jeremiah 
was fulfilled: and I took the thirty silver pieces, the 
price of him who had been priced, whom they had 
priced and expelled from the sons of Israel; and 
I gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord had 
bidden me’. 


? Mt. and Lk.: “‘ wept bitterly” (26:75) (22:62). 
>’ Deuteronomy 23: 18. 
¢ Zechariah 11: 12-13; Jeremiah 32: 6-15; 18: 1-4. 





[§ 102] THe CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION 153 


Now Jesus stood before the governor. They 
proceeded to accuse him, saying, “We have dis- 
covered this fellow perverting our nation, forbidding 
tribute being paid to Caesar, and alleging he is king 
messiah.” And the governor asked him, “Are 
you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “‘Cer- 
tainly.”” But while he was being accused by the 
high priests and elders, he made no reply. Then 
Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear all their 
evidence against you? Have you no reply to make?” 
But, to Pilate’s great astonishment, he would not 
answer him a single word. 


102. Trial Before Herod. 


And Pilate said to the high priests and the 
crowds, “I cannot find anything criminal about 
him.” But they insisted, “He stirs up the people 
by teaching all over Judaea. He started from 
Galilee and now he is here.’’ When Pilate heard 
that, he asked if the man was a Galilean, and 
ascertaining that he came under the jurisdiction 
of Herod, he remitted him to Herod, who himself 
was in Jerusalem during those days. Herod was 
greatly delighted to see Jesus; he had long wanted 
to see him, because he had heard about him and 
also because he hoped to see him perform some 
miracle. But though he put many questions to 
him, Jesus gave him no answer. Meanwhile the 
high priests and scribes stood and accused him 
with might and main. Then Herod and his 
troops scoffed at him and made fun of him, and 
after arraying him in a bright robe he remitted 
him to Pilate. Herod and Pilate became friends 
that day—previously they had been at enmity. 

Then summoning the high priests and rulers 
and the people, Pilate said to them, “You 


Lk. 23:2 


Mk. 15:4 


Lk. 23: 4-17 


Mk. 15: 6-15 
Mt. 27:15-26 
Lk. 23:18-25 


Mt. 27:19 


Mt. 27:20 


Tienes 20 
Mt. 27: 21-22 


Lk. 23: 22-23 


154 Tue Story or JESUS [§ 103] 


brought me this man as being an inciter to rebel- 
lion among the people. I have examined him 
before you and found nothing criminal about him, 
for all your accusations against him. No, nor 
has Herod, for he has remitted him to us. He has 
done nothing, you see, that calls for death; so 
I shall release him with a whipping.” 


103. Pilate’s Decision. 


Now at festival time he used to release for them 
some prisoner whom they begged from him. 
(There was a man called Bar-Abbas! in prison, 
among the rioters who had committed murder 
during the insurrection.) ‘So the crowd pressed 
up and started to ask him for his usual boon. 
Pilate replied, ““Would you like me to release the 
king of the Jews for you?” (For he knew the 
high priests had handed him over out of envy. Be- 
sides, when he was seated on the tribunal, his wife 
had sent to tell him, “‘Do nothing with that innocent 
man, for I have suffered greatly to-day in a dream 
about him.’’) 

But the high priests and elders stirred up the 
crowd to get him to release Bar-Abbas for them 
instead. Pilate asked them again, for he wanted 
to release Jesus, “‘Which of the two do you want 
me to release for you?” ‘‘Bar-Abbas,” they said. 
Pilate said, “‘And what am I to do with your so- 
called king of the Jews??? Whereupon they 
shouted again, “Crucify him.” “Why,” said 
Pilate, ““what has he done wrong? I have found 
nothing about him that deserves death; so I shall 
release him with a whipping.” But they shouted 


1 Bar-Abbas was a political prisoner, charged with violence 


against Roman authority. This was the very accusation 
they were making against Jesus. 


[§ 104-a] THe CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION 155 


more fiercely than ever, “Crucify him!” Their 
shouts carried the day. For when Pilate saw that in- 
stead of him doing any good a riot was rising, he took 
some water and washed his hands in presence of the 
crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this good man’s 
blood. It is your affair!” To this all the people 
replied, ““Hvis blood be on us and on our children!” 
So, as Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd, he 
released Bar-Abbas for them; Jesus he handed 
over to their will to be crucified, after he had 
scourged him. 


104. The Crucifixion of Jesus. 
a). On the Way to Golgotha. 


The soldiers of the governor took him inside the 
courtyard! (that is, the praetorium) and got all 
the regiment together; then they stripped him 
and dressed him in purple, put on his head a crown 
of thorns which they had plaited, put a stick in 
his hand and, kneeling before him in mockery, 
began to salute him with, “Hail, O king of the 
Jews!” They struck him on the head with a stick 
and spat upon him and bent their knees to him in 
homage. ‘Then, after making fun of him, they 
stripped off the purple, put on his own clothes, 
and took him away to crucify him. They forced 
Simon a Cyrenian who was passing on his way 
from the country (the father of Alexander and 
Rufus?) to carry his cross. He was followed by 
a large multitude of the people and also of women 
who beat their breasts and lamented him; but Jesus 
turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, 
weep not for me but weep for yourselves and for your 





1 The residence of the Roman Governor. 7 Probably names 
which afterwards became familiar to the Christian group. 


Mt. 27:24-2 


Lk. 23:25 


Mk. 15: 16-21 
Mt. 27:27-32 
Lk. 23:26-31 
Mt. 27:27-29 


Lk. 23:27-31 


156 THe Story or JESUS [§ 104—b] 


children! For there are days coming when the cry — 
will be, 
‘Blessed are the barren, 
the wombs that never have borne 
~ and the breasts that never have suckled!’ 
Then will people say to the mountains, ‘Fall — 
on us!’ and to the hills, ‘ Cover us*.’: 
For tf this is what they do when the wood is 
green, 
what will they do when the wood is dry?” 


b). The Crucifixion. 


Mk. 15:22-32 And they led him to the place called Golgotha 

Mt. 27:33-44 (which means the place of a skull). They offered — 

“a Akita him wine flavoured with myrrh!, but when he 

Mt. 27:34 tasted it he would not take it®. Then they crucified 
him and distributed his clothes among themselves, 
drawing lots for them to decide each man’s share®. 

Lk. 23:34-38 Jesus said, “Father, forgwe them, they do not know 
what they are doing.” It was nine in the morning ~ 
when they crucified him. The inscription bearing 
his charge in Greek and Latin and Hebrew charac- 
ters Was: 


THE KING OF THE JEws?. 


They also crucified two robbers along with him, 
one at his right and one at his left. The people 
stood and looked on. Those who passed by scoffed 
at him, nodding at him in derision and calling, 
““Ha! You were to destroy the temple and build 
Mt. 27:40-42 it in three days! If you are God’s Son come down 
from the cross and save yourself!’ So, too, the 
@ Cp. Hosea 10:8. ® Cp. Psalm 69:21. ¢ Cp. Psalm 22: 18. 
4Mt.: “This is Jesus the King of the Jews” (27: 37). 
Lk.: “This is the King of the Jews”’ (23: 38). 


1 A strong stimulant, “bracing and warming the system.” 


[§ 104-c] Toe CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION 157 


high priests and elders made fun of him to them- 
selves with the scribes. “‘He saved others,” they 
said, ““but he cannot save himself! Let ‘the 
Christ,’ ‘the king of Israel’ come down now from 
the cross! Let us see that and we will believe! 
His trust is in God*? Let God deliver him now if 
he cares for him!” The soldiers made fun of him 
too by coming up and handing him vinegar, and 
saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save 
yourself.” 

One of the criminals who had been hung also 
abused him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? 
Save yourself and us as well.’ But the other 
checked him, saying, ““Have you no fear even of 
God? You are suffering the same punishment as he. 
And we suffer justly; we are getting what we 
deserve for our deeds. But he has done no harm.” 
And he added, “‘ Jesus, do not forget me when you 
come to reign.” “I tell you truly,” said Jesus, 
“you will be in paradise with me this very day.” 


c). Jesus’ Death. 


When twelve o’clock came, darkness covered 
the whole land till three o’clock, owing to an eclipse 
of the sun, and at three o’clock Jesus -gave a 
loud ery, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthanei”’ (which 
means, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me??) Qn hearing this some of the bystanders 
said, “Look, he is calling for Elijah.”” One man 
ran off, soaked a sponge in vinegar’, and put it 
on the end of a stick to give him a drink, saying, 
““Come on, let us see if Elijah does come to take 
him down:” But Jesus gave a loud cry and said, 
“Father, I trust my spirit in thy hands?,” and 





* Psalm 22: 8. 6 Psalm 22: 1. ¢ Cp. Psalm 69: 21. 
¢ Psalm 31: 5. 


Mt. 27:43 
Lk. 23:36-37 


Lk. 28:39-43 


Mk. 15:33-41 
Mt. 27°45-56 
Lk. 23:44-49 
Lk. 23: 46 


Lk. 23:46 


Mt. 27:51-53 


Lk. 23:48 


Mk. 15:42-47 
Mt. 27:57-66 
Lk. 23: 50-24:1 
Mt. 27:67 
Lk-23: 50-51 


158 Tue Story or JESUS [§ 104—-d] 


expired. And the curtain of the temple was torn 
in two, from top to bottom, and the earth shook, 
the rocks were split, the tombs were opened, and a 
number of bodies of the saints who slept the sleep 
of death rose wp—they left the tombs after his resur- 
rection and entered the holy city and appeared to a - 
number of people?. 

Now when the army-captain who stood facing 
him saw that he expired in this way, he said, ““ This 
man was certainly a son of God*%.” And when. 
all the crowds who had collected for the sight saw 
what had happened, they turned away beating their 
breasts. 

There were some women also watching at a 
distance, among them Mary of Magdala, Mary the 
mother of James the younger and of Joses, and 
Salome, women who had foHowed him when he 
was in Galilee and waited on him, besides a 
number of other women who had accompanied 
him to Jerusalem. 


d). The Burial. 


By this time it was evening, and as it was the 
day of Preparation (that is, the day before the 
sabbath) Joseph of Arimathaea?, a rich councillor 
of good position, a just man who had not voted for 
their plan of action, who himself was on the out- 
look for the Reign of God?® ventured to go to 
Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus’. Pilate was 
surprised that he was dead already; he summoned 
the captain and asked if he had been dead some 
time*, and on ascertaining this from the captain 
4Vk.: “This man was really innocent”’ (23: 47). 


6’ Mt.: “who had become a disciple of Jesus” (28: 57). 
¢ Deuteronomy 21: 22-23. 


1 See note on this in the Introduction. 2 A member of the 
Sanhedrin. *% Death by crucifixion was slow and lingering. 





[§ 105-a] THE CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION 159 


he bestowed the corpse on Joseph. He, after 
buying a linen sheet, took him down and swathed 
him in the linen, laying him in his own new tomb 
which had been cut out of the rock where no one had 
yet been buried, and rolling a boulder up against 
the opening of the tomb he went away. Now 
Mary of Magdala and Mary the mother of Joses 
noted where he was laid. So the women who had 
accompanied him from Galilee and who had followed 
Joseph, noted the tomb and the position of the body; 
then they went home and prepared spices and per- 
fumes. On the sabbath they rested in obedience 
to God’s command?. 

Newt day (that is, on the day after the Preparation) 
the high priests and Pharisees gathered round Pilate 
and said, ““We remember, sir, that. when this impostor 
was alwe he said, ‘I will rise after three days.’ Now 
then, give orders for the tomb to be kept secure till 
the third day, wn case his disciples go and steal him 
and then tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead.’ 
The end of the fraud will then be worse than the be- 
ginning of rt.” Plate said to them, “ Take a guard 
of soldiers, go and make it as secure as you can.” 
So off they went and made the tomb secure by putting 
a seal on the boulder and setting the guard. 


. 105. The Resurrection 
a). The Empty Tomb. 


Mt. 27:60 
Lines aoe 


Mt. 27: 60 


Lk. 23: 55- 
Ciel 


Mt. 27:62-66 


And when the sabbath had passed Mary of MK. 16:1-8 


Magdala, Mary the mother of James, and Salome 
, bought some spices in order to go and anoint him}; 


« Exodus 12: 16; 20: 8-11; Deuteronomy 5: 12-15. 


1 Anointing of the dead was customary. This was to complete 
the honor due the dead. There had not been time for it on 
the day of crucifixion, and Jewish custom forbade their attend- 
ing to it on the sabbath. 








Mt. 28:1-7 
Lk. 24:1-8 


Mt. 28:2-4 


Lk. 24:3 


Lk. 24:5 


Lk. 24:6-7 


Mt. 28: 8-15 
Lk, 24: 9-12 


160 THE Strory or JESUS [$ 105-b] 


and very early on the first day of the week they 
went to the tomb, after sunrise. But a great earth- 
quake took place; an angel of the Lord came down 
from heaven and went and rolled away the boulder 
and sat on wt. His appearance was like lightning 
and his raiment white as snow. For fear of him. 
the sentries shook and became like dead men. The 
women said to themselves, ““Who will roll away 
the boulder for us at the opening of the tomb?” 
(for it was a very large boulder). But when they 
looked they saw the boulder had been rolled to one 
side, and on entering the tomb, they could not find 
the body of Jesus, but they saw a youth? sitting 
on the right dressed in a white robe. They were 
bewildered, but he said to them, “Do not be 
bewildered. You are looking for Jesus of Nazaret, 
who was crucified? Why do. you look among the 
dead for him who is alive? He has risen, he is not 
here. That is the place where he was laid. 
Remember how he told you when he was still in 
Galilee that the Son of man had to be betrayed into 
the hands of sinful men and be crucified and rise 
on the third day. Go you and tell his disciples and 
Peter, ‘He has risen from the dead. He precedes 
you to Galilee; you shall see him there, as he 
told you. That 1s my message for you.’ ”’ Then 
they remembered what he had said. 


b). Appearance to the Women. 


Then they ran quickly from the tomb in fear 
and great joy, to announce the news to his 
disciples. And Jesus himself met them, saying, 
“Hail!” So they went up to him and caught 
hold of his feet and worshipped him; then Jesus 
said to them, “Have no fear! Go and tell my 


@Lk.: “two men” (24: 4). 


[§ 105-c] THe CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION 161 


brothers to leave for Galilee; they shall see me 
there.”’ 

They reported all this to the eleven and all the others 
(Ut was Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the 
mother of James who with the rest of the women told 
this to the apostles.) But this story of the women 
seemed in their opinion to be nonsense; they would 
not believe them. Peter did get wp and run to the 
tomb, but when he looked in he saw nothing except 
the linen bandages; so he went away home wondering 
what had happened. 

Some of the sentries went into the city and 
reported all that had taken place to the high 
priests, who, after meeting and conferring with 
the elders, gave a considerable sum of money to 
the soldiers and told them to say that “his 
disciples came at night and stole him when we 
were asleep.” “If this comes to the ears of the 
governor,” they added, “we will satisfy him 
and see that you have no trouble about the 
matter!.”” So the soldiers took the money and 
followed their instructions; and this story has 
been disseminated among the Jews down to the 
present day. 


c). On the Road to Emmaus. 


That very day two of them were on their way 
to a village called Emmaus about seven miles 
from Jerusalem. ‘They were conversing about all 
these events, and during their conversation and 
discussion Jesus himself approached and walked 
beside them, though they were prevented from 
recognizing him. He said to them, “ What is all 


Lk. 24:9-12 


Lk. 24:13-32 


this you are debating on your walk?” ‘They .- 





? For a soldier to fall asleep while on guard was a very serious 
offense. 


162 THE Story or JESUS [§ 105-c] 


stopped, looking downcast, and one of them, 
called Cleopas, answered him, “Are you a lone 
stranger in Jerusalem, not to know what has been 
happening there?” ‘What is that?’ he said to 
them. They replied, “All about Jesus of Nazaret! 
To God and all the people he was a prophet strong © 
in action and utterance, but the high priests and 
our rulers delivered him up to be sentenced to 
death and crucified him. Our own hope was that 
he would be the redeemer of Israel; but he is’ 
dead, and that is three days ago! Though some 
women of our number gave us a surprise; they 
were at the tomb early in the morning and could 
not find his body, but they came to tell us they 
had actually seen a vision of angels who declared 
he was alive. Some of our company did go to 
the tomb and found things exactly as the women 
had said, but they did not see him.” He said to 
them, ‘“‘O foolish men, with hearts so slow to 
believe, after all the prophets have declared! 
Had not the Christ to suffer thus and so enter his 
glory?” Then he began with Moses and all the 
prophets and interpreted to them the passages 
referring to himself throughout the scriptures. 
Now they approached the village to which they 
were going. He pretended to be going further on, 
but they pressed him, saying, “Stay with us, for 
it is getting towards evening and the day has now 
declined.” So he went in to stay with them. And 
as he lay at table with them he took the loaf, 
blessed it, broke it, and handed it to them. Then 
their eyes were opened and they recognized him, 
but he vanished from their sight. And they said to 
one another, “‘Did not our hearts glow within us 
when he was talking to us on the road, opening 
up the scriptures for us?’ 


[§ 105-d] THE CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION 163 


d). In Jerusalem. 


So they got up and returned that very hour to 
Jerusalem, where they found the eleven and their 
friends all gathered, who told them that the 
Lord had really risen and that he had appeared 
to Simon. Then they related their own experience 
on the road and how they had recognized him 
when he broke the loaf. Just as they were speak- 
ing He stood among them [and said to them, 
“Peace to you!’’|. They were scared and terrified, 
imagining it was a ghost they saw; but he said 
to them, ““Why are you upset? Why do doubts 
invade your mind? Look at my hands and feet. 
It is I! Feel me and see; a ghost has not flesh 
and bones as you see I have.’ [With these words 
he showed them his hands and feet.] Even yet 
they could not believe it for sheer joy; they were 
lost in wonder. So he said to them, “Have you 
any food here?”’ And when they handed him a 
piece of broiled fish, he took and ate it in their 
presence. Then he said to them, ““When I was 
still with you, this is what I told you, that what- 
ever is written about me in the law of Moses and 
the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 
Then he opened their minds to understand the 
scriptures. “Thus,” he said, “it is written that 
the Christ has to suffer and rise from the dead 
on the third day’, and that repentance and the 
remission of sins must be preached in his name 
to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ‘To 
this you must bear testimony. And I will send 
down on you what my Father has promised; 
wait in the city till you are endued with power 
from on high.” He led them out as far as Bethany; 
then, lifting his hands, he blessed them. And as 


* Hosea 6: 2. 





LK. 24: 33-53 


Mt. 28: 16-20 


164 THE Story orf JESUS [$ 105-e] 


he blessed them he parted from them [and was 
carried up to heaven]. ‘They [worshipped him 
and] returned with great joy to Jerusalem, 
where they spent all their time within the temple, 
blessing God. . 


e). In Galilee — The Final Instructions. 


Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to 
the hill where Jesus had arranged to meet them. 
When they saw him they worshipped him, though. 
some were in doubt. Then Jesus came forward 
to them and said, “Full authority has been given 
to me in heaven and on earth; go and make 
disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name 
of the Father and the Son and the holy Spirit, 
and teach them to obey all the commands I have 
laid on you. And I will be with you all the time, 
to the very end of the world.”’ 


- APPENDIX A. 


The Ancestry of Jesus. 


The birth-roll of Jesus Christ, the son of David, mt. 1:1-17 
the son of Abraham. Lk. 3:23-38 

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the 
father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and 
his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and 
Zerah by Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, 
Hezron the father of Aram, Aram the father of 
Aminadab, Aminadab the father of Nahshon, 
Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the 
father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz the father of 
Obed by Ruth, Obed the father of Jessai, and 
Jessai the father of King David. David was the 
father of Solomon by Uriah’s wife, Solomon the 
father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of 
Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father 
of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, 
Joram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the father 
of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz 
the father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the father 
of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, 
Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the 
father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the period 
of the Babylonian captivity. After the Babylo- 
nian captivity, Jechoniah was the father of Sheal- 
tiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel 
the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, 
Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of 
Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, Achim the 
father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar, 
Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the 

165 


166 Tue Story or JESUS 


father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, and 
Joseph (to whom the virgin Mary was betrothed) 
the father of Jesus, who is called ‘Christ.’ 

Thus all the generations from Abraham to 
David number fourteen, from David to the 
Babylonian captivity fourteen, and from the 
Babylonian captivity to Christ fourteen. | 


_— 


- APPENDIX B. 
Flight to Egypt. 


After the magicians had gone, there appeared Mt. 2:13-23 


an angel of the Lord to Joseph in a dream, saying, 
**Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to 
Egypt; stay there till I tell you. For Herod is 
going to search for the child and destroy him.” 
So he got up, took the child and his mother by 
night, and went off to Egypt, where he stayed 
until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what 
the Lord had said by the prophet: I called my 
Son from Egypt’. 

Then Herod saw the magicians had trifled with 
him, and he was furiously angry; he sent and slew 
all the male children in Bethlehem and in all the 
neighbourhood who were two years old or under, 
calculating by the time he had ascertained from 
the magicians. Then the saying was fulfilled 
which had been uttered by the prophet Jeremiah ®: 

A cry was heard in Rama, 
weeping and sore lamentation— 
Rachel weeping for her children, 
and inconsolable because they are no more. 

But when Herod died, there appeared an angel 
of the Lord in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 
saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and 
go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the 
child’s life are dead.” So he rose, took the child 
and his mother and went to the land of Israel; 
but on hearing that Archelaus reigned over 





* Hosea 11: 1. 6 Jeremiah 31: 15. 
167 


168 Tue Story or JESUS 


Judaea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid 
to go there and, by a divine injunction in a dream, 
withdrew to the region of Galilee. He went and 
settled in a town called Nazaret, so that what 
had been said by the prophets might be fulfilled: 
“He shall be called a Nazarene®.’ 


@ Tsaiah 11:1. 


Index of Passages 


MATTHEW 

Verses Paragraph Page | Verses Paragraph Page 
1: 1-17 Appendix A 165 8:19=22 $52 87 
1:18-25 §5-a 4 8:23-27 §32 58 
8:28-34 §33-a 58 

2: 1-12 87 9 
2:13-23 Appendix B_ 167 92.1 §33-b 60 
9: 2-8 §21-a Q5 
3: 1-12 $11 14 | 9: 9-13 §21-b 26 
3:13-17 §12 16 9:14-17 §21-c 27 
9:18—26 §33-b, c 60 
4: 1-11 §13 17 9:27-34 §33-d 62 
4:12-17 $14 18 9:35-10:1 §35-a 63 

4:18-22 816 Q1 
4:23 §18 23 | 10: 1- 4 §23 30 
4:24 §21-e 28 | 10: 5-33 §35-b 64 
4:25 §22 29 | 10:17-23 §92-c 135 
10:34-11: $35-c 66 

5: 1-12 brits 31 
5:13-16 24— 33 M 
De 11: 2-19 $26 45 
5:17-48 §24—c BoM saae anion 353 ad 
/, cl yO §24-d 37 11:28-30 §26 45 

6: 5-15 §24-e 37 
6:16-18 §24-f gg | 12: 1-8 §21-d 28 
6:19-34 §24-g 39 | 12: 9-14 §21-e 28 
12:15-21 §22 29 
ete. §24-h Ap) | 12:22-37 §29-a 49 
7: 7-20 §24-i Ay | 12:38—45 §29-b 51 
T:21- 8:1 § 24-5 43 | 12:46-50 §30 52 
8: 2- 4 §20 aa }lo: 1-17 §31-a 52 
8: 5-13 §25-a 43 | 13:18-23 §31-b 54 
8:11-12 $62 100 | 13:24-30 §31-c 55 
8:14-17 §17 21 | 13:31-35 §31-d 56 
( 8:18 $32 58 | 13:36-43 §31-e 57 


170 


Verses 
13 :44-53 
13:54-58 


141-12 
14:13-23 
14:23-36 


15: 1-20 
15:21-28 
15:29-31 
15:32-39 


1Oe 1 Le 
16:13-28 


4%: 1-13 
17:14-21 
17:22-23 
17 :24-27 


LScri-10 
18:11-20 
18:21-35 


i AY ea Be 4 
19; 3-12 
19:13-15 
19:16-30 


20: 1-16 
20:17-19 
20 :20-28 
20 :29-34 


Slerl—ti 
21:12-22 
21 :23-27 
21 :28-32 
21 :33-46 


Verses 
1: 1-8 
1: 9-11 


InDEX OF PASSAGES 


Paragraph Page 


§31-f 
§34 


§36 
§37 
§38 


§39 
$40 
§41 
§42 


$43 
845 


$46 
§47 
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$49 


§50-a 
§50-b 
§50-c 


§51 
874 
§75 
§76 


877 
§78 
§79 
§80 


§83 
§84 
§85 
§86 
§87-a 


Paragraph Page 


§11 
§12 


Verses 
57 22: 1-14 
63 22 :15-22 

22 :23-33 
67 22 :34-40 
68 22 :41-46 
70 

23: 1-39 
71 
74 24: 1- 2 
15 24: 3—- 8 
75 | 24- 9-14 

24.:15-22 
76 Q4.:238-42 
78 24.:43-51 
80 | 25: 1-13 
81 | 25:14-30 
82 | 25.31-46 
82 

26:,1- 5 
83 | 96: 6-16 
86 26:17-29 

26 :30-35 

26 .36—46 
134 | 26:47-56 
113 26 :57-68 
115 Q7: 1-14 
116 | 27:15-26 
117 Q7 :27-32 
118 27 :33-44 

27 45-56 
121 27 :5 7-66 
123 
124 28: 1- 7 
125 28. 8-15 
125 28 :16-20 
MARK 

Verses 
14 1:12-13 
16 1:14-15 


Paragraph Page 


§87-b 
§88-a 
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§88-c 
§89 


§90 


§92-a 
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§92-d 
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§92-f 


§92-g 
§92-h 
§92-1 


§93 
$94 
§95 
§96 
897 
§98 
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§101 
§103 
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§104—d 


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127 
128 
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130 - 


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§13 
§14 


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18 


Verses 


INDEX OF PASSAGES 


Paragraph Page 


21 


Verses 
LOSah 

10: 2-12 
10:13-16 
10:17-31 
10 :32-34 
10:35-45 
10 :46-52 


Livei=ti 
11:12-25 
11:27-33 


121-12 
L237 
12:18-27 
12:28-34 
12:35-37 
12:38-40 
12:41-44 


13: 1=;2 
13: 3- 8 
13: 9-13 
13:14-20 
13:21-37 


14: l- 2 
14: 3-11 
14:12-25 
14:26-31 
14:32-42 
14:43-52 
14:53-65 
14:66-72 


15: l- 5 
15: 6-15 
15:16-21 
15 :22-32 
15:33-41 
15 :42-47 


LG 1-3 


171 


Paragraph Page 


87 
112 
113 
114 
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121 
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124 


125 
128 
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129 
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130 
134 


134 
135 
135 
136 
137 


143 
144 
145 
146 
148 
149 
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151 


152 
154 
155 
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159 


172 


Verses 
1: 5-25 
1:26-38 
1:39-56 
1:57-80 


Or Or Or Or Gr CS ee ©9 ©9 9 rT VO TH TH 
¥ 
fod 
iss) 


InDEX OF PASSAGES 


LUKE 
Paragraph Page , Verses 
§1 1 8:11-18 
§2 3 | 8:19-21 
§3 4 | 8:22-25 
§4 5 | 8:26-39 
8:40-56 
§5-b 8 
86 8 9: 1 
§8 11 9202-5 
§9 12 | 9:6 
§10 13 Hap e 
9:10-17 
S11 14 9:18-27 
§12 16 9 :28-36 
Appendix A 165 | 9:37-43 
9:43-45 
§13 17 9:46—-50 
$14 18 9:51-56 
815 19 9:57-62 
817 21 | 19: 1-24 
§18 23 | 10:25-37 
$19 gq | 10:38-42 
§20 24 | 11: 1-13 
§21-a 25 | 11:14-23 
§21-b 26 | 11:24-32 
§21-c 27 | 11:27-28 
11:33 
§21-d 28 | 11:34-36 
§21-e 28 | 11:37-54 
§23 30 
§24-a 31 | 12: 1-9 
§24-c¢ 33 | 12:10 
§24-h 40 | 12:11-12 
§24-i 41 | 12:13-34 
§24—j 43 | 12:35-56 
12:49-53 
§25-a 43 | 12:57-59 
§25-b 4A 
- §26 Ab 118: 1-9 
§27 47 | 13:10-17 
13:18-21 
§28 49 | 13:22-33 
§31-a 52 | 13:34-35 


§31-b 
§30 

§32 
§33-a 
§33-b, c 


§35-a 
§$35-b 
§35-c 
§36 
§37 
845 
§46 
§47 
§48 
§50-a, 
§51 
$52 


$53 
854 
855 


Paragraph Page © 


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52 
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49 
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INDEX OF PASSAGES 173 


Verses Paragraph Page \ Verses Paragraph Page 


14: 1- 6 $63 101 | 20:39-40 §88-c 129 
14: 7-24 S64 101 | 20:41-44 §89 130 
14:25-35 S65 103 | 20:45-47 $90 130 
15: 1-32 $66 104 | 21: 1-4 S91 134 
Q1: 5- 6 §92-a 134 
16: 1-15 $67 106 | 21: 7-11 §92-b 135 
16:16 §26 46 | 21:12-19 §92-¢ 135 
16:17-18 §24-c 33 | 21:20-24 §92-d 136 
16:19-31 §68 107 | 21:25-38 §92-e 137 
17: 1- 2 §50-a 83 | 22: 1-2 $93 143 
17: 3 §50-b 85 | 22: 3-6 $94. 144 
17: 4 §50-c 86 | 22: 7-23 895 145 
17: 5- 6 S84 123 | 22:24-97 $79 117 
17: 7-10 S69 108 | 22:28-30 876 114 
17:11-19 $70 109 | 22:31-38 $96 146 
17 :20-37 871 109 | 22:39-46 897 148 
22:47-53 §98 149 
18: 1- 8 $72 111 | 22:54-55 $99 150 
18: 9-14. §73 111 | 22:56-65  §100 151 
18:15-17 875 113 | 22:66-71 $99 150 
18:18-30 $76 114 
18:31-34 $78 116 | 28:1-38 §101 152 
18:35-43 §80 118 | 23: 4-17  §102 153 
23:18-25 8103 154 
19: 1-10 §81 118 | 23:26-31  §104-a 155 
19:11-28 §82 - 119 | 23:32-43  §104-b 156 
19:29-44 §83 121 | 23:44-49  §104-c 157 
19:45-48 S84 123 | 23:50-24:1 §104-d 158 
20: 1- 8 $85 124 | 24:1-8 §105-a 159 


20: 9-19 §87-a 125 | 24: 9-12 §105-b . 160 
20 :20-26 §88-a 128 | 24:13-32 §105-c 161 
20 :27-38 §88-b 128 | 24:33-53 §105-d 163 





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The story of Jesus : the complete record 


Princeton Theological Seminary—Speer Library 


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